Diversity,endemism and economic potential of wild edible plants of Indian Himalaya

SUMMARY

The rich plant diversity of the Indian Himalaya is utilized by the native communities in various forms as medicine, edible/food, fodder, fuel, timber, agricultural tools, etc. Among these, wild edible plants form an important source as a supplement/substitute food in times of scarcity for native communities. Because land holdings are small and subsistence agriculture prevails, the natives gather many wild plants for food. This paper presents an inventory of wild edible plants of Indian Himalaya used by local communities. Over 675 wild plant species, representing 384 genera and 149 families, are used as food/edible and their various parts are either consumed raw, roasted, boiled, fried, cooked or in the form of oil, spice, seasoning material, jams, pickles, etc. The species were analysed for diversity in different phytogeographical provinces, altitudinal distribution, endemism, origin and potentials. West Himalaya shows the highest diversity (50.96%) of edible plants and East Himalaya the maximum number of endemics (18 taxa) and wild relatives of economic plants (39 taxa). Mass scale propagation, dissemination of information packages to local inhabitants to ensure that wild edibles remain as a resource for income generation, and strategies for conservation and management are recommended.     

Wild fruits as a contribution to sustainable rural development: a case study from the Garhwal Himalaya

Garhwal Himalaya is an important source of wild fruit species. These wild fruit trees grow abundantly across an altitudinal gradient of Himalaya and the majority of them bear fruits during summer. Fruit varieties are eaten raw by the local inhabitants of the region and whilst they are a rich source of protein, carbohydrate, fat and other elements, compared to cultivated fruits, they have not yet been considered as a source of alternative food products. About 13 potentially exploitable species of wild fruits and one semi-domesticated species having high potential for exploitation were selected for study; six (Aegle marmelos, Berberis asiatica, Hippophae rhamnoides, Myrica nagi, Rubus ellipticus and Prunus armeniaca) were examined in detail for their economic potential. Among the wild fruits, Hippophae rhamnoides was found to be economically efficient, followed by Aegle marmelos, Rubus ellipticus and Myrica nagi, respectively. Prunus armeniaca, a semi-domesticated and less utilized fruit of the higher Himalaya, provides better economic returns on an annual basis. The authors have recently made an attempt to utilize these wild fruits as a source of income, particularly for poor rural inhabitants and unemployed youths of the region by making a variety of edible products such as jam, jelly, juice, squash, sauce, etc. The enterprise was demonstrated to the people to encourage them to adopt it in the form of a small village-level cottage industry. The present paper discusses the distribution, botany, phenology, yield, ethnobotany, and uses of these species, and the cost-benefit analysis of food products prepared from them.     

Ex situ collections and their potential for the restoration of extinct plants

The alarming current and predicted species extinction rates have galvanized conservationists in their efforts to avoid future biodiversity losses, but for species extinct in the wild, few options exist. We posed the questions, can these species be restored, and, if so, what role can ex situ plant collections (i.e., botanic gardens, germplasm banks, herbaria) play in the recovery of plant genetic diversity? We reviewed the relevant literature to assess the feasibility of recovering lost plant genetic diversity with using ex situ material and the probability of survival of subsequent translocations. Thirteen attempts to recover species extinct in the wild were found, most of which used material preserved in botanic gardens (12) and seed banks (2). One case of a locally extirpated population was recovered from herbarium material. Eight (60%) of these cases were successful or partially successful translocations of the focal species or population; the other 5 failed or it was too early to determine the outcome. Limiting factors of the use of ex situ source material for the restoration of plant genetic diversity in the wild include the scarcity of source material, low viability and reduced longevity of the material, low genetic variation, lack of evolution (especially for material stored in germplasm banks and herbaria), and socioeconomic factors. However, modern collecting practices present opportunities for plant conservation, such as improved collecting protocols and improved cultivation and storage conditions. Our findings suggest that all types of ex situ collections may contribute effectively to plant species conservation if their use is informed by a thorough understanding of the aforementioned problems. We conclude that the recovery of plant species currently classified as extinct in the wild is not 100% successful, and the possibility of successful reintroduction should not be used to justify insufficient in situ conservation.     

Contrasts between male relationships in wild gorilla groups

Summary This paper examines proximate and ontogenetic causes of differences between the relationships of wild gorilla males. Two pairs belonging to different reproductive groups were observed. In both, the mature male was dominant over the younger one. However, in one, the males interacted extremely rarely, while in the other, affinitive behaviour, largely initiated by the younger male, was frequent. Three factors that could have influenced the nature of the relationships are discussed. These are their ontogeny, payoffs to the partners from each other's presence, and the ability of at least one partner to alter any imbalance in payoffs. The importance of understanding such proximate causes of variation within species to consideration of differences between species is emphasised.     

Cover Caption

Cover: Sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) swim upriver to Kuril Lake on Russia's remote Kamchatka Peninsula, the most productive spawning area for the species in the western Pacific. On pages 1075—1079, Charles Conn reflects on the state and future of conservation science from his perspective as an environmental grant maker whose career began in high‐profile internet businesses. His work on wild salmon ecosystems highlights the effectiveness of aligning biological and economic values held by society. Conn suggests that implementation of national sustainability policies, international certification regimes, and changes in resource access and governance may change patterns of human consumption and achieve conservation objectives in the coming decades. Cover image © 2011 Igor Shpilenok. Photographer: Igor Shpilenok travels across Russia documenting its nature reserves, national parks, and wild places. Shpilenok drove the creation in 1987 of a strict nature reserve, the Bryansky Les Zapovednik, which conserves floodplains, forests, and nesting habitat of the rare Black Stork (Ciconia nigra). During the 11 years Shpilenok managed Bryansky Les Zapovednik, he and his colleagues led the designation process for another 12 nature reserves. Shpilenok is a regular contributor to National Wildlife, Ranger Rick, Russian Life, National Geographic–Russia, Canadian Wildlife, Geo–Germany, and BBC Wildlife. His photographs twice were awarded first prize in the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, one in 2006 and one in 2009. In 2008 Shpilenok and his wife, nature writer Laura Williams, published their memoir Th e Storks' Nest.     

Social monitoring in a multilevel society: a playback study with male Guinea baboons

Keeping track of social interactions among conspecifics is a driving force for the evolution of social cognition. How social cognition, such as social knowledge, ties in with a species' social organization is, however, largely unexplored. We investigated the social knowledge of wild Guinea baboons (Papio papio) ranging in Senegal, a species that lives in a fluid multilevel society with overlapping habitat use. Using playback experiments, we tested how adult males differentiate between subjects from their own vs. a neighboring or a stranger social unit (“gang”) and assessed ranging patterns with Global Positioning System (GPS) data. While territorial species usually differentiate between group and nongroup members and often respond more strongly to strangers than neighbors (the “dear enemy” effect), subjects in this highly tolerant species should largely ignore other unit members and mainly attend to subjects from their own unit. Males responded strongly after playback of calls recorded from members of their own gang, while they attended only briefly to neighbor or stranger calls. Apparently, males benefit from monitoring the social maneuvers in their own social unit, while it remains to be resolved whether they are unmotivated or unable to keep track of the identities and actions of individuals outside their own gang. The study highlights how the allocation of social attention is tuned to the specifics of a species' social organization, while a complex social organization does not necessarily translate into the need for more elaborate social knowledge.     

Wind tunnel attraction of grapevine moth females, Lobesia Botrana, to natural and artificial grape odour

Summary. Host plant volatiles which attract insect herbivores for egg-laying are of principal interest with respect to insect ecology and evolution. Direct applications concern population monitoring and control through behavioural manipulation. Identification of behaviourally active plant secondary metabolites is essential also for plant breeding for insect resistance. Grapevine moth females Lobesia botrana are attracted by upwind flight to green grape berries Vitis vinifera. The headspace of grape berries was collected on air filters. A solvent extract of these filters, released from a sprayer, attracted females in the wind tunnel. The results demonstrate that volatile cues mediate attraction of grapevine moth females to grape berries, and that headspace collections capture the essence of this odour signal. The air filter extracts were examined by gas chromatography coupled with electroantennographic detection, and the compounds eliciting a consistent antennal response in L. botrana females were identified by mass spectrometry. The headspace collection apparatus was calibrated for collection efficiency of the active compounds. Their recovery rate ranged from 35 % for methyl salicylate to 83 % for (E,E)-α-farnesene. A synthetic ten-component blend was then formulated. The blend consisted of compounds eliciting an antennal response, formulated in a blend ratio corrected for differences in collection efficiency. Subsequent wind tunnel tests showed that female attraction to this synthetic ten-component blend was not significantly different from attraction to grape berries, or to headspace collections of the same berries. At a release rate of 35 ng/h of the most abundant compound (E)-β-caryophyllene, 20 % of the test females approached the source of sprayed headspace collections and the ten-component synthetic blend, respectively. In comparison, 100 g of green berries, releasing the main compound (E)-β-caryophyllene at a rate of ca. 4.7 ng/h, attracted 10 % of the females by upwind flight followed by source contact.     

Paleoecology and the Coarse-Filter Approach to Maintaining Biological Diversity

Abstract: The difficulties of saving millions of species from extinction often cause conservationists to focus on a higher level of biological organization, the community. They do so for two reasons: (1) communities are considered important biological entities in their own right; and (2) conserving representative samples of communities is seen as an efficient way to maintain high levels of species diversity. This approach will work if the chosen communities contain almost all species. Because it potentially saves most but not all species, community conservation is a "coarse-filter" approach to the maintenance of biological diversity, and contrasts with the "fine-filter" approach of saving individual species. Paleoecological information on the distribution of plant taxa in North America, however, indicates that most modern plant communities are less than 8,000 years old and therefore are not highly organized units reflecting long-term co-evolution among species. Rather, they are only transitory assemblages or co-occurrences among plant taxa that have changed in abundance, distribution, and association in response to the large climate changes of the past 20,000 years. During periods when climate changes are large, communities are too ephemeral to be considered important biological entities in their own right. Large climatic changes are also likely to occur during the next century because of increased concentrations of CO₂, and we therefore propose that the coarse-filter approach to selecting nature reserves should be more strongly influenced by the distribution of physical environments than by the distribution of modern communities. Ideally, nature reserves should also encompass a broad enough range of environments to allow organisms to adjust their local distribution in response to long-term environmental change and should be connected by regional corridors that would allow species to change their geographic distributions.     

Translocation of threatened plants as a conservation measure in China

We assessed the current status of plant conservation translocation efforts in China, a topic poorly reported in recent scientific literature. We identified 222 conservation translocation cases involving 154 species, of these 87 were Chinese endemic species and 101 (78%) were listed as threatened on the Chinese Species Red List. We categorized the life form of each species and, when possible, determined for each case the translocation type, propagule source, propagule type, and survival and reproductive parameters. A surprisingly large proportion (26%) of the conservation translocations in China were conservation introductions, largely implemented in response to large‐scale habitat destruction caused by the Three‐Gorge Dam and another hydropower project. Documentation and management of the translocations varied greatly. Less than half the cases had plant survival records. Statistical analyses showed that survival percentages were significantly correlated with plant life form and the type of planting materials. Thirty percent of the cases had records on whether or not individuals flowered or fruited. Results of information theoretic model selection indicated that plant life form, translocation type, propagule type, propagule source, and time since planting significantly influenced the likelihood of flowering and fruiting on the project level. We suggest that the scientific‐based application of species conservation translocations should be promoted as part of a commitment to species recovery management. In addition, we recommend that the common practice of within and out of range introductions in nature reserves to be regulated more carefully due to its potential ecological risks. We recommend the establishment of a national office and database to coordinate conservation translocations in China. Our review effort is timely considering the need for a comprehensive national guideline for the newly announced nation‐wide conservation program on species with extremely small populations, which is expected to stimulate conservation translocations for many species in the near future.     

On the risk of extinction of a wild plant species through spillover of a biological control agent: Analysis of an ecosystem compartment model

Invasive plant species can be controlled by introducing natural enemies (insect herbivores) from their native range. However, such introduction entails the risk that the introduced herbivores attack indigenous plant species in the area of introduction. Here, we study the effect of spillover of a herbivore from a managed ecosystem compartment (agriculture) to a natural compartment (non-managed) and vice versa. In the natural compartment, an indigenous plant species is attacked by the introduced herbivores, whereas another indigenous plant species, which competes with the first, is not attacked. The combination of competition and herbivory may result in extinction of the attacked wild plant species. Using a modelling approach, we determine model parameters that characterize the risk of extinction for a wild plant species. Risk factors include: (1) a high attack rate of the herbivores on the wild non-target species, (2) niche overlap expressed as strong competition between the attacked non-target species and its competitor(s), and (3) factors favouring large spillover from the managed ecosystem compartment to the natural compartment; these include (3a) a high dispersal ability, and (3b) a moderate attack rate of the introduced herbivore on the target species, enabling large resident populations of the insect herbivore in the managed compartment. The analysis thus indicates that a high attack rate on the target species, which is a selection criterion for biocontrol agents with respect to their effectiveness, also mitigates risks resulting from spillover and non-target effects. While total eradication of an invasive plant species is not possible in the one-compartment-one-plant-one-herbivore system, natural enemy spillover from a natural to a managed compartment can make the invasive weed go extinct.     

Impacts of hunting on tropical forests in Southeast Asia

Although deforestation and forest degradation have long been considered the most significant threats to tropical biodiversity, across Southeast Asia (Northeast India, Indochina, Sundaland, Philippines) substantial areas of natural habitat have few wild animals (>1 kg), bar a few hunting‐tolerant species. To document hunting impacts on vertebrate populations regionally, we conducted an extensive literature review, including papers in local journals and reports of governmental and nongovernmental agencies. Evidence from multiple sites indicated animal populations declined precipitously across the region since approximately 1980, and many species are now extirpated from substantial portions of their former ranges. Hunting is by far the greatest immediate threat to the survival of most of the region's endangered vertebrates. Causes of recent overhunting include improved access to forests and markets, improved hunting technology, and escalating demand for wild meat, wildlife‐derived medicinal products, and wild animals as pets. Although hunters often take common species, such as pigs or rats, for their own consumption, they take rarer species opportunistically and sell surplus meat and commercially valuable products. There is also widespread targeted hunting of high‐value species. Consequently, as currently practiced, hunting cannot be considered sustainable anywhere in the region, and in most places enforcement of protected‐area and protected‐species legislation is weak. The international community's focus on cross‐border trade fails to address overexploitation of wildlife because hunting and the sale of wild meat is largely a local issue and most of the harvest is consumed in villages, rural towns, and nearby cities. In addition to improved enforcement, efforts to engage hunters and manage wildlife populations through sustainable hunting practices are urgently needed. Unless there is a step change in efforts to reduce wildlife exploitation to sustainable levels, the region will likely lose most of its iconic species, and many others besides, within the next few years.     

Protection versus culture-driven exploitation of wild plant resources: the case on Changbai Mountain

Under Chinese culture it is believed that herbal medicine is always safe and wild food is always healthy. Generally, the rarer a plant, the higher its value. The booming economy in China has promoted tourism development in wilderness areas and wild medicinal and food plants are part of the attraction to tourists. Conflicts between wild plant exploitation and protection have emerged in many parts of China, such as Changbai Mountain. Changbai Mountain supports numerous medicinal and food plants but many have become rare and endangered. This paper numerically evaluates 30 plant species that have relatively high conservation value for each type (medicinal, ornamental and food), and briefly describes the uses of four to five top ranked species per type that need more protection on Changbai Mountain. This paper also addresses some tree species with important timber values on Changbai Mountain. Over 90% of China's medicinal, ornamental and food plant species, as well as valuable timber trees are found in the conifer–broadleaf mixed forest zone across the boundary of Changbai Mountain Nature Reserve. It is a major challenge to protect the native biodiversity of mixed forest on Changbai Mountain and more efforts need to be made to protect rare and endangered plant species with high economic value.     

海南与其他6个生态示范省的经济发展及区域可持续发展能力比较

建设生态省是实施区域可持续发展的一种有效组织形式。本文就国家环保总局批准的七个生态示范省的经济发展及区域可持续发展能力进行比较,发现七省的经济发展现状及区域可持续发展能力在全国31个地区中属于中上水平,均有创建生态省的本底条件,但区域可持续发展各方面的能力极不平衡,各省要从实际出发,扬长避短,因地制宜,探索具有本地特色的生态省建设的新路子。     

Vegetation Response to Early Holocene Warming as an Analog for Current and Future Changes

Abstract: Temperatures in southwestern North America are projected to increase 3.5–4 °C over the next 60–90 years. This will precipitate ecological shifts as the ranges of species change in response to new climates. During this shift, rapid‐colonizing species should increase, whereas slow‐colonizing species will at first decrease, but eventually become reestablished in their new range. This successional process has been estimated to require from 100 to over 300 years in small areas, under a stable climate, with a nearby seed source. How much longer will it require on a continental scale, under a changing climate, without a nearby seed source? I considered this question through an examination of the response of fossil plant assemblages from the Grand Canyon, Arizona, to the most recent rapid warming of similar magnitude that occurred at the start of the Holocene, 11,700 years ago. At that time, temperatures in southwestern North America increased about 4 °C over less than a century. Grand Canyon plant species responded at different rates to this warming climate. Early‐successional species rapidly increased, whereas late‐successional species decreased. This shift persisted throughout the next 2700 years. I found two earlier, less‐extreme species shifts following rapid warming events around 14,700 and 16,800 years ago. Late‐successional species predominated only after 4000 years or more of relatively stable temperature. These results suggest the potential magnitude, duration, and nature of future ecological changes and have implications for conservation plans, especially those incorporating equilibrium assumptions or reconstituting past conditions. When these concepts are extended to include the most rapid early‐successional colonizers, they imply that the recent increases in invasive exotics may be only the most noticeable part of a new resurgence of early‐successional vegetation. Additionally, my results challenge the reliability of models of future vegetation and carbon balance that project conditions on the basis of assumptions of equilibrium within only a century.     

稀有植物掌叶木生物学习性及其保护

掌叶木为我国特有残遗植物 ,仅分布在广西与贵州接壤的石灰岩地区。因人为破坏、生境特殊及自身特性影响 ,资源稀少 ,被列为国家重点保护植物。本文研究了其生态生物学特性 ,并初步探讨其致濒原因及解决方法     

Heirs and spares: caste conflict and excess queen production in Melipona bees

The caste conflict hypothesis states that there is potential conflict over the caste fate of totipotent immature females in social insects. In most species, an immature female has little control over her fate because workers control her nutrition. However, in Melipona bees, immature females should have considerable control over their own caste fate because they develop on a provision mass in a sealed cell, and because queens are not larger than workers. This may explain why, in Melipona, large numbers of queens are reared only to be executed. (Because Melipona colonies are founded by swarms very few reproductive opportunities for adult queens occur.) This study uses a one-locus genetic model to determine the optimum proportion of females that should develop into queens from the perspective of immature totipotent females who control their own caste fate. For a population in which all colonies are headed by a single, single-mated queen, which is the typical situation in Melipona, the optimum rises from 14-20% as male production by workers declines from 100% to zero. This agrees well with previous studies which, collectively, give an average of 22% of females developing into queens.     

Tropical arboreal ant mosaics: innate attraction and imprinting determine nest site selection in dominant ants

The modalities of nest site selection have, until now, been a key factor missing in the understanding of the arboreal ant mosaic, the manipulation of which could be used to favour one ant species to the detriment of others in biological control. We compared two dominant African arboreal ants of economic importance, Tetramorium aculeatum (Myrmicinae) and Oecophylla longinoda (Formicinae). The two species differed in terms of innate attraction to nesting site plants, their hierarchies of attractiveness being nearly inverse. Winged females and workers were confronted with choice tests using four plant species. By using winged females and workers originating from one of the plants to be tested, we showed the existence of a familiarisation process which can supersede innate attraction in both species. We recorded the same effect in neonatal workers bred in the laboratory in contact with a tested plant for 25 days after emergence, while mature workers could not be conditioned. There is, therefore, early learning, with a sensitive period after which the influence of the environment ceases, suggesting that this is a true imprinting process. Choice tests using neonates produced from larvae and pupae bred in the laboratory in contact with the leaves of each tested plant permitted us to demonstrate the existence of pre-imaginal learning. Nest site selection therefore depends on innate selective attraction and on environmental factors whose effect begins at the larval stage. There is, therefore, the potential to “control” imprinting, allowing one ant species to be favoured to the detriment of others in monospecific tree crop plantations. Received: 25 May 1998 / Accepted after revision: 9 October 1998     

Demographic Models and Reality in Reintroductions: Persian Fallow Deer in Israel

Abstract:  Because most reintroduced species are rare, data on their dynamics are scarce. Consequently, reintroduction programs often rely on data from other species or captive populations to project the performance of the reintroduced population in the wild. We compared the reproductive success and survival of a Persian fallow deer ( Dama mesopotamica ) population reintroduced in Israel over the first 5 years of the project with the survival and reproduction parameters estimated while planning the reintroduction. In addition, we compared the actual growth of the wild population with the growth originally projected by a computer model in the original reintroduction program. We monitored 74 radio-collared individuals (57 females and 17 males) released semiannually 1996–2001. Survival during the first year after release was lower than later years (0.90 and 0.82 versus 0.95 and 0.88, for females and males, respectively). Such an impact was not anticipated in the original plan, but overall survival was higher than originally projected. As assumed in the reintroduction program, reproductive success improved significantly with time since release and overall, was higher than expected. The mean number of animals released annually was lower than planned. Overall, the growth of the reintroduced population was slower than projected, but the deviation was close to confidence limits and the pattern similar. After 5 years it appears that the original time frame of 8–10 years for project completion can be met or at worst will cause a 1-year delay. Over the short term of 5 years, projection models in reintroduction programs are useful tools for assessing the sustained use of the breeding core, depicting the dynamics of the population in the wild, providing a relatively accurate time frame for the successful completion of the project, and assessing project success.     

Virtual Garden Computer Program for use in Exploring the Elements of Biodiversity People Want in Cities

Urban ecology is emerging as an integrative science that explores the interactions of people and biodiversity in cities. Interdisciplinary research requires the creation of new tools that allow the investigation of relations between people and biodiversity. It has been established that access to green spaces or nature benefits city dwellers, but the role of species diversity in providing psychological benefits remains poorly studied. We developed a user‐friendly 3‐dimensional computer program (Virtual Garden [ www.tinyurl.com/3DVirtualGarden ]) that allows people to design their own public or private green spaces with 95 biotic and abiotic features. Virtual Garden allows researchers to explore what elements of biodiversity people would like to have in their nearby green spaces while accounting for other functions that people value in urban green spaces. In 2011, 732 participants used our Virtual Garden program to design their ideal small public garden. On average gardens contained 5 different animals, 8 flowers, and 5 woody plant species. Although the mathematical distribution of flower and woody plant richness (i.e., number of species per garden) appeared to be similar to what would be expected by random selection of features, 30% of participants did not place any animal species in their gardens. Among those who placed animals in their gardens, 94% selected colorful species (e.g., ladybug [Coccinella septempunctata], Great Tit [Parus major], and goldfish), 53% selected herptiles or large mammals, and 67% selected non‐native species. Older participants with a higher level of education and participants with a greater concern for nature designed gardens with relatively higher species richness and more native species. If cities are to be planned for the mutual benefit of people and biodiversity and to provide people meaningful experiences with urban nature, it is important to investigate people's relations with biodiversity further. Virtual Garden offers a standardized tool with which to explore these relations in different environments, cultures, and countries. It can also be used by stakeholders (e.g., city planners) to consider people's opinions of local design. Programa de Computadora de Jardín Virtual para Uso en la Exploración de los Elementos de Biodiversidad que la Gente Desea en las Ciudades     

Effects of urbanization on the population structure of freshwater turtles across the United States

Landscape‐scale alterations that accompany urbanization may negatively affect the population structure of wildlife species such as freshwater turtles. Changes to nesting sites and higher mortality rates due to vehicular collisions and increased predator populations may particularly affect immature turtles and mature female turtles. We hypothesized that the proportions of adult female and immature turtles in a population will negatively correlate with landscape urbanization. As a collaborative effort of the Ecological Research as Education Network (EREN), we sampled freshwater turtle populations in 11 states across the central and eastern United States. Contrary to expectations, we found a significant positive relationship between proportions of mature female painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) and urbanization. We did not detect a relationship between urbanization and proportions of immature turtles. Urbanization may alter the thermal environment of nesting sites such that more females are produced as urbanization increases. Our approach of creating a collaborative network of scientists and students at undergraduate institutions proved valuable in terms of testing our hypothesis over a large spatial scale while also allowing students to gain hands‐on experience in conservation science.