The contribution of the Canary Island date palm (Phoenix canariensis) to the winter diet of frugivores in novel ecosystems

With the increasing expansion in urban areas, many species have adapted to utilising horticulturally used plants as alternate or augmentary food sources, in particular, during winter – when native foods are largely absent. Ornamental palms, particularly Canary Island Date Palms, fruit continuously during most of the year and thus provide a stable food supply. Based on observational, metric and bio-chemical data, this paper examines the role Canary Island Date Palms can and do play in the nutrition of frugivorous animals, in particular, for birds. It demonstrates that with its nearly year-round provisioning of drupes, the palm plays a major role as a ‘staple’ and backup food source for several species

Freshwater Lens, Settlement Patterns, Resource Use and Connectivity in the Marshall Islands

Life on coral atolls can be very precarious. The sand cay islets are low-lying (in the main less than 2m above high water) and small. Only the larger islands (over 500m by 1000m) are suitable for permanent human habitation, as they possess a fragile lens of freshwater floating on top of a saltwater base. It is this lens of groundwater that allows for a variety of plant life, and it is this source of fresh water that allows humans to exist on the island. Environmental disasters, such as typhoons with waves of over 10m washing across an entire islet, can swamp the groundwater lens with saltwater, causing salinisation and thus imperilling human survival. To reduce the consequences of the environmental disasters, Marshallese chiefs had land holdings scattered over several islands of the same atoll, as well as land rights and, importantly, rights to resources, on other atolls. In times of disaster there were thus other resources to call upon. That level of connectivity allowed the Marshallese society to thrive on the marginal land they inhabited

Dietary habits of urban pigeons (Columba livia) and implications of excreta pH – A review

Pigeons are considered to be urban pests, causing untold damage to buildings and potentially impacting the health of humans who come into contact with them or their faeces. Pigeon faecal matter has been implicated in both health impacts and building damage, with the acidity of the excreta playing an important role. Purpose of the Review. This paper is a wide-ranging review of the chemical processes of excreta in the pigeon to aid our understanding of the potential problems of pigeons to buildings and human amenity in the urban space. The natural pH of pigeons is shown to vary based on the bird’s and age as well as reproductive stage. Key findings of the review. The influences of the altered diet between the rock dove (the wild progenitor of the feral pigeon) and the feral pigeon are detailed, indicating that the human-based diet of urban pigeons most likely causes the feral pigeon excreta to be more acidic than the rock dove excreta. This higher acidity is due in part to diet, but also to potential increases in faecal and/or uric acid volumes due to the low quality of humanbased diets. Again, this area of interest is highly data deficient due to the few number of studies and unspecified dietary intake before pH measurement. Implications of the review. Humans are increasingly concerned about pigeon populations (and presumably their accumulated faeces) in the urban space, and control comprises a large part of the interaction between humans and feral pigeons. This review provides a greater understanding of feral pigeons and the true effects of their excreta

Gender Bias After Death: The Case of the Clergical Cemetery, St. John’s Orphanage, Thurgoona, NSW, Australia

Cemeteries are commonly seen as reflective of the historic environment in which they were created and therefore form a unique interpretive tool for the cultural heritage manager. As this case study of clergical cemetery documents, physical heritage of a cemetery may well reflect the power hierarchy at the time, but it does not accurately reflect the historic reality. The effective manipulation of the tangible evidence left behind for future generations has effectively enshrined a gender bias in perpetuity

Circadian patterns of Wikipedia editorial activity: A demographic analysis

Wikipedia (WP) as a collaborative, dynamical system of humans is an appropriate subject of social studies. Each single action of the members of this society, i.e. editors, is well recorded and accessible. Using the cumulative data of 34 Wikipedias in different languages, we try to characterize and find the universalities and differences in temporal activity patterns of editors. Based on this data, we estimate the geographical distribution of editors for each WP in the globe. Furthermore we also clarify the differences among different groups of WPs, which originate in the variance of cultural and social features of the communities of editors

Index application for the analysis of characteristics of the rainy season in subtropical region of Argentina

El objetivo principal de este trabajo es identificar la época de inicio y fin de la estación lluviosa en la Argentina al norte de 30ºS mediante un índice adecuado y analizar su variabilidad interanual en regiones homogéneas respecto a la variabilidad temporal de la precipitación. Se utilizaron datos de precipitación diaria en 19 estaciones pluviométricas de la República Argentina provistos por el Servicio Meteorológico Nacional, para el período 1974-2004, y datos de viento zonal en el nivel de 850 hPa de los reanálisis del ECMWF (ERA-40) para el período 1979-1999. Se establecieron las fechas de inicio y fin de la estación lluviosa para cada estación pluviométrica mediante un criterio de acumulación de precipitación. Este criterio resulta ser adecuado para analizar regiones cuyo ciclo anual de precipitación es marcado. El análisis de la variabilidad interanual de las series de inicio y fin de la estación lluviosa muestra que ambas regiones poseen tendencias hacia una extensión en la longitud de la misma. Se encuentra que los cambios en la componente zonal del viento en niveles bajos, de valores positivos (de mediados de abril a principios de septiembre) a valores negativos (principios de septiembre a mediados de abril), representan el inicio y fin climatológico de la estación lluviosa.The main objective of this study is to identify the dates of the onset and end of the rainy season in Argentina North of 30°S, through an appropriate index, and to analyze its interannual variability in homogeneous regions with respect to the temporal variability of precipitation. We used daily precipitation data from 19 pluviometric stations in Argentina provided by the National Weather Service for the period 1974-2004, and zonal wind data at the level of 850 hPa derived from ECMWF (ERA-40) for the period 1979-1999. The dates of the onset and end were established for each station through a rainfall accumulation criterion. This criterion is adequate to analyze regions which have an accentuated rainfall annual cycle. The analysis of the interannual variability of the rainy season's series showed that both regions have a trend towards an extension in length. We found that changes in the low level zonal wind, from positive values (from mid-April to early September) to negative values (early September to mid-April), represent the climatological onset and end of the rainy season.Fil: Rivera, Juan Antonio. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Ciencias de la Atmósfera y los Océanos; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Herrera, Natalia. Ministerio de Defensa. Secretaria de Planeamiento. Servicio Meteorológico Nacional; ArgentinaFil: Gulizia, Carla. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Centro de Investigaciones del Mar y la Atmosfera. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Centro de Investigaciones del Mar y la Atmosfera; ArgentinaFil: Montroull, Natalia Blanca. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Centro de Investigaciones del Mar y la Atmosfera. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Centro de Investigaciones del Mar y la Atmosfera; ArgentinaFil: Spennemann, Pablo Cristian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Centro de Investigaciones del Mar y la Atmosfera. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Centro de Investigaciones del Mar y la Atmosfera; ArgentinaFil: Zazulie, Natalia. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Ciencias de la Atmósfera y los Océanos; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Pteropus poliocephalus Dispersing Seeds of the Queen Palm (Syagrus romanzoffiana) in Albury, NSW

Flying Foxes have adapted to feed on a range of introduced ornamental plants species. In the past, Flying Foxes have been implicated in seed dispersal from the source plant back to the roost. This paper documents a dispersal of Queen palm drupes to an intermediate feeding location. The state of knowledge on the consumption of Queen Palm drupes by Flying Foxes is reviewed in the context of the distribution, dispersal and establishment of the palms in the Australian environment