Forests in the time of peace

ABSTRACT

The signing of Colombia’s peace agreement in 2016 signaled the end of a decades-long war between the government and the FARC (Las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia), but also an emerging assault against the country’s forests. This article aims to understand the interactions between forests and peace. In doing so, it traces landscape transformations of deforestation and possibilities for making landscapes livable in the midst of disturbance. Drawing on field research, including interviews and participant observation carried out in Colombia from 2016 to 2018, it reveals how deforestation is driven by ongoing colonization and land grabbing, mostly dedicated to extensive cattle ranching, coca cultivation, and campesinos’ transition to ‘licit’ agricultural alternatives. The article also shows how emerging coordination among farmers and forests following forest disturbance contributes to an interpretation of peace in which forests are integral. The article concludes with a call to incorporate forests in the construction of peace.     

Contest behaviour in the speckled wood butterfly (Pararge aegeria): seasonal phenotypic plasticity and the functional significance of flight performance

Although contemporary animal contest theory emphasises the importance of physical asymmetries in resolving disputes, such asymmetries do not obviously settle fights in all groups. Territorial male butterflies, for example, compete via elaborate non-contact aerial interactions in which success is determined by relative persistence. Prior research suggests that the resolution of these contests is not clearly related to physical variables such as body size or energy reserves. However, given that the contests involve elaborate aerial manoeuvres, one long-standing suggestion is that asymmetries in flight performance, and thus flight morphology, may be important. We addressed this hypothesis via a manipulative investigation into the biophysical correlates of contest success in the speckled wood butterfly, Pararge aegeria. This species possesses the ability for significant adaptive phenotypic plasticity in relevant flight morphological parameters. We took advantage of this plasticity to rear 90 individuals of markedly varying flight morphologies, which we then pitted against each other in a semi-controlled experimental fashion. Multiple logistic and lognormal analyses provided little evidence for the relevance of morphological parameters, including relative flight musculature, wing loading and wing aspect ratio (wing length relative to area), to the outcome and/or duration of experimental contests. Instead, we found a positive effect of age upon contest success. Given that ability for high acceleration is strongly linked to variation in these morphological parameters, our findings suggest that flight performance is not a strong determinant of resource-holding potential in this notably territorial butterfly.     

Effect of oxygen and salt on haemolymph oxygen binding in the brine shrimp Artemia franciscana

The oxygen-binding properties of haemolymph from laboratory-reared Artemia franciscana were investigated in vitro. Adult female brine shrimp without eggs were acclimated to seven different combinations of salinity and oxygen. The oxygen affinity (P₅₀) of unprocessed haemolymph rises with acclimation oxygen partial pressure (PO₂) up to normoxic values, after which no influence of oxygen occurs. The increase in P₅₀ with acclimation PO₂ can be explained by the change in proportion of each of three different haemoglobins in the haemolymph. Salinity acclimation has no effect on haemolymph P₅₀. The effects of the different major salts [NaNO₃, NaCl, Ca(NO₃)₂, Mg(NO₃)₂], pH, and the metal-binding ligand EGTA on the oxygen-binding properties of buffered haemolymph (of shrimp acclimated to 10 salinity) were also studied. Little or no effect of these salts could be found. A small Bohr effect (pH 6.5 to 9.1, =-0.11) was noted. Addition of EGTA caused a significant decrease of the oxygen affinity at concentrations up to 50 mmoll^-1.     

Effect of environmental factors on byssal thread formation

The effects of various factors on byssal thread formation have been examined in the laboratory using Modiolus demissus and Mytilus edulis. With M. demissus thread formation (threads/mussel/h0 and proportion of mussels forming threads decreased with increasing size; prior exposure to air enhanced subsequent thread formation; mechanical agitation reduced thread formation. In addition, low salinity acclimated mussels adapted more rapidly to 32 ppt than high salinity acclimated mussels did to 16 ppt; threads were not formed in the absence of calcium and/or magnesium; and there was no reduction in thread formation at temperatures as high as 27° to 28°C. M. edulis died and thread formation approached zero at temperatures exceeding 26°C.     

Lipid composition of twenty-two species of Antarctic midwater zooplankton and fish

Total lipids, hydrocarbons, wax esters, triacylglycerols, and phospholipids were determined for 22 major biomass species of zooplankton and fish in an Antarctic mesopelagic community that were collected in 1982 and 1983. Lipid levels were similar to levels in more temperate mesopelagic species. Total lipid concentration was depth related, with all lipid-rich species being collected at depths greater than 230 m. Wax ester content in copepods (60 to 70% of the total lipid) was generally higher than in subtropical species. Lipids indicated three predator-prey relationships (Parandania boecki-Atolla wyvillei, Thysanoessa macrura-Calanoides acutus andEurythenes gryllus-Atolla wyvillei). These were confirmed by gut content analyses. The mesopelagic fishBathylagus antarcticus, Pleuragramma antarcticum, andProtomyctophum bolini stored most lipid intramuscularly, whereasElectrona antarctica andGymnoscopelus nicholsi contained extensive stores in subcutaneous lipid sacs. The intramuscular lipids inP. antarcticum and the subcutaneous lipid sacs ofE. antarctica were primarily wax esters, possibly used for increased buoyancy or long-term energy storage. Unlike the odd-carbon preference of aliphatic hydrocarbons which typifies terrestrial plants and temperate marine organisms, even-carbon chain-length paraffins predominate in 80% of the Antarctic species analyzed. Although the source of these even-carbon n-alkanes cannot be determined from our data, their dominance in the species analyzed suggests that an unusual biochemical pathway may be responsible for their synthesis in this ecosystem.     

Application of fluorescent in situ hybridization for ‘de novo’ anomalies in prenatal diagnosis

Fluorescent in situ Hybridization (FISH) was carried out for three cases of abnormal karyotypes in prenatal studies. Two concerned de novo structural anomalies and the third a marker chromosome. The origin of the extra material could be defined in all three cases, which gives a better insight into the relationship between genotype and phenotype and makes more adequate genetic counselling possible.     

Detection of fetomaternal haemorrhage associated with cordocentesis using serum α-fetoprotein and the kleihauer technique

Fetomaternal haemorrhage (FMH) was studied after 46 cordocenteses. α-Fetoprotein (AFP) concentration and Kleihauer staining of maternal blood, taken both before and after the procedure, revealed increases in AFP values of more than 40 per cent in 30 per cent of the patients examined; fetal haemorrhage of more than 0.25 ml was detected in 46 per cent of the cases by the Kleihauer test. In the second trimester of pregnancy both techniques are comparable, while in the third trimester the Kleihauer technique appears to be more sensitive in detecting FMH after cordocentesis. An anterior position of the placenta is a risk factor for FMH.     

Prenatal ultrasound diagnosis of the Holt-Oram syndrome

The Holt-Oram syndrome is an autosomal dominant disorder consisting of a congenital heart defect in combination with characteristic upper limb abnormalities. This report presents the ultrasonographic follow-up of two fetuses at risk for the Holt-Oram syndrome. In the first fetus, the existence of Holt-Oram syndrome was suspected at 22 weeks of gestation; a ventricular septal defect, an atrial septal defect, and a minor skeletal defect were found. In the second fetus, no structural abnormalities were discovered until the 30th week, when a small atrial septal defect was detected. In both pregnancies, it was possible to exclude early in gestation the more severe forms of the Holt-Oram syndrome.