关键词： Bone shaft   Egg shell   Snail shell   Supplementation   Edible fungi   Mineral enrichment  

摘要： Calcium assimilated by edible fungi cultivated on two palm tree wastes viz.;coconut husk with coir (CH), and palm kernel fibre (PK) supplemented with egg shell of chicken (ES), snail shell (SS), bone shaft of cow (BS) at different ratios or with 1.5% w/w calcium compounds as a calcium-rich substrate was *** ostreatuscultivated on (CH + ES + SS) and (CH + 1.5% w/w CaCO3) have the highest (P < 0.05) biological efficiency of 57.70% and 56.91%, *** squarrosulusfrom (PK + ES) and (CH + 1.5% w/w CaCO3) also has relatively high (P < 0.05) biological efficiency of 54.09 and 53.41%.Lentinus squarrosulusharvested from (CH + ES + SS + BS) have the highest protein content of 6.50%, followed byP. ostreatusharvested from (PK + ES + SS + BS) with 6.40%.Pleurotus ostreatusandL. squarrosulusharvested from non-calcium supplemented substrates respectively have the lowest calcium content of 125.0-133.0 mg/100 g and 105.0-185.0 mg/100 g.P. ostreatusharvested from (CH + ES + SS) have the highest calcium content of 596.6 mg/100 g with Absorption Ratio (AR) of 4.6, whileL. squarrosuluscultivated on (PK + ES + SS + BS) have calcium content of 510.6 mg/100 g with the highest AR of 4.8. Fortification of lignocellulosic wastes with calcium salts or animal wastes that are rich in calcium is a good substrate mixture to produce calcium-enriched mushrooms, which will pacify calcium deficiency aliments. [GRAPHICS] .

关键词： Tree forages   Animal feed   Arid zone   Algarobo  

摘要： Mesquite tree (Prosopisspp.), is an important species in arid zones, due to its nitrogen-fixing and adaptability to drought seasons, it also provides food for many species of wild animals which feed on its nectar, pollen, leaves and pods. This plant is an excellent source of protein, fiber, sugars and phytochemical compounds such as alkaloids, tannins, phenolics, steroids, terpenes and flavonoids. Mesquite has been used in farm animal nutrition as supplement with recommended proportions between 20 and 40%. The nutritional contributions also depend on the usage of pods or foliage, however, most of the studies highly recommend an enzymatic pretreatment to increase the biomass digestibility. Its nutritional characteristics and ability to grow under scarce water conditions turn it as a potential source to replace expensive forages for farm animal feeding especially in semiarid regions;however, the results in animal feeding are diverse. The usage of tree species in arid zones for animal feeding has been long proposed, but, forProsopisspp. there are few updated studies despite of its potential usage. This work presents a general overview of the mesquite tree usage in animal feed.

关键词： Arthropod diversity   Community structure   Functional diversity   Invasive alien plants   Invasion ecology   Species richness  

摘要： Plant invasions can modify the composition of native communities through altering diversity and ecosystem functioning. For example, arthropod communities can be influenced by the introduction of invasive plant species, but the impacts of plant invasions on arthropod communities have received little attention. Here, we investigated the diversity and species composition of arthropods in areas with and without invasive plants by comparing native ecosystems and areas invaded by Acacia dealbata, A. longifolia and A. melanoxylon in 18 locations in the northwestern Iberian Peninsula. Yellow sticky traps were placed in branches above ground in randomly selected areas and used to qualify and quantify the number of aerial arthropods. The aim was to assess the impact of invasive Acacia on arthropod species in different ecosystems. Our results demonstrate that arthropods are negatively influenced by Acacia invasions, reducing the abundance and diversity in invaded areas, which had substantial effects on beta-diversity and trophic levels. Overall, our findings indicate that invasive acacias can alter the species composition by not only reducing abundance and diversity but also altering the different trophic groups of the arthropod assemblages. The physical dominance of Acacia invaders alters the co-occurrence of arthropod assemblages, reducing the number of groups and leading to substantial effects on ecosystem dynamics as well as in the trophic diversity. We suggest implementing management strategies to favour the protection of native ecosystems and reduce the impacts of these exotic plants on arthropod biodiversity at the habitat level.

关键词： Habitat type   parasitope   rodents   South Africa   Trombiculidae  

摘要： Chigger mites (Trombiculidae) are temporary habitat-specific ectoparasites that often occur on rodents. Little ecological data are available on chiggers associated with rodents in South Africa. The study aims were to (1) record the chigger species associated with rodents in the savanna, (2) assess if chigger species display parasitope preference on the rodent body and (3) compare the distribution of chigger species in natural, agricultural and urban habitats. Rodents (n= 314) belonging to eight genera were trapped in the savanna biome during 2014 and 2015. Twelve chigger species, of which five are recently described species, were recorded from 161 rodent hosts. The data include three new country locality *** mastomyiawas the most prevalent species across sampling seasons and habitat types. Significant parasitope preference was recorded for two species, with the ear, face and tail base some of the preferred attachment sites. Sampling season and habitat type had a significant effect on chigger communities with summer and agricultural habitats recording the highest species richness, while the highest species diversity was recorded in natural habitats. The study contributes to our current knowledge regarding rodent-associated chigger diversity and distribution in South Africa and further highlights the importance of environmental characteristics in shaping chigger communities.

关键词： Moringa   Leucaena   Mulberry fodder trees   In vitro gas production   DM and NDF degradations   Rabbit performance  

摘要： Leaves of Mulberry (Morus albaLam.), Leucaena (Leucaena leucocephalaLam de wit.) and Moringa (Moringa oleiferaLam.) were evaluated as dry season protein supplements for grazing animals based on chemical composition, in vitro and in sacco nutrient digestibility and a Rabbit feeding trial. All tree fodder forages had similar dry matter (DM) content, but crude protein was higher in Moringa (28.6%) followed by Leucaena (24.5%), Mulberry (24.1%) and Lucerne (18.0%). Ash content was highest in Mulberry followed by Moringa and Lucerne with Leucaena having lowest amounts. Polyphenols ranged from 2.72 to 3.64%, with Leucaena having highest and Mulberry lowest amounts. Dietary fibre were highest in Mulberry and Moringa, but there were no significant differences (P < 0.05) between Leucaena and Lucerne. In vitro gas production and DM disappearances were higher in Moringa followed by Mulberry and Lucerne with Leucaena having lowest amounts. Except for Leucaena, DM disappearances were increased when rumen fluid from dairy cattle steers was used. In sacco DM disappearances were 33.7% for Leucaena, 78.2% for Lucerne, 50.2% for Moringa and 50.7% for Mulberry. In vitro and in sacco crude fibre and neutral detergent fibre disappearances were relatively lower, but reflected DM disappearances. The Rabbit feeding trial showed diets based on Moringa, Leucaena and combined fodder forages to have significantly better performance than Mulberry and grass hay alone. The conclusion was that tested tree fodder forages have potential of being used as dry season protein supplements for grazing animals on traditional smallholder farms.

关键词： 人类疾病动物模型   实验动物   手术麻醉   树鼩   伦理问题   生理特点   灵长类  

摘要： 树鼩被认为是最接近灵长类的动物。它具有体型小、数量多、价格便宜、伦理问题少等优点。近年来随着对树鼩生理特点的深人研究,它被广泛应用于建立人类疾病动物模型[1]。

关键词： Africa   daily activity   home range   migration   predation   population dispersion   ungulates  

摘要： Nearly 90% of the world's large herbivore diversity occurs in Africa, yet there is a striking dearth of information on the movement ecology of these organisms compared to herbivores living in higher latitude ecosystems. The environmental context for movements of large herbivores in African savanna ecosystems has several distinguishing features. African large herbivores move in landscapes with high spatiotemporal variability, low predictability, seasonal restrictions in surface water as well as food resources, and exposure to a diverse assemblage of competitors, predators, and pathogens. These features influence mobility, diel activity routines, home-range fidelity, and exposure to predation. We review the knowledge that has been gained about the movements of African herbivores from Global Positioning System (GPS) telemetry and identify important gaps in knowledge that exist. Topics addressed include seasonal movement patterns, daily activity schedules, space utilisation, water dependency, responses to risks of predation, pathogen transmission, social affiliations, and local population density determination. While the growing number of GPS telemetry studies has addressed a wide range of topics in Africa, they remain fragmentary in terms of places and species represented. Most research has been focussed on three species, and practices for data sharing and analysis should be improved. African landscapes are changing perhaps faster than any other region on Earth, with rapidly expanding human populations, massive infrastructure development projects, and changes in climatic regimes. There is a crucial need to establish relationships between herbivore movements and their changing environments, especially in Africa where most of the world's large herbivore diversity resides.

关键词： CITES   International trading   IUCN   Plant blindness   Trafficking   Vertebratism  

摘要： Legal and illegal wildlife trade is a multibillion dollar industry that is driving several species toward extinction. Even though wildlife trade permeates the Tree of Life, most analyses to date focused on the trade of a small selection of charismatic vertebrate species. Given that vertebrate taxa represent only 3% of described species, this is a significant bias that prevents the development of comprehensive conservation strategies. In this short contribution, we discuss the significance of global wildlife trade considering the full diversity of organisms for which data are available in the IUCN database. We emphasize the importance of being fast and effective in filling the knowledge gaps about non-vertebrate life forms, in order to achieve an in-depth understanding of global trading patterns across the full canopy of the Tree of Life, and not just its most appealing twig.

关键词： Green tree   Avian   Biodiversity   Populus tremuloides   Ecological forestry  

摘要： Contemporary forest management is increasingly focused on maintaining ecosystem function and services including biodiversity conservation. As a result, harvest guidelines related to retention of live trees and woody biomass (fine and coarse residue arising from harvesting) have been developed to provide benefits for wildlife, but there is much uncertainty on the effectiveness of these guidelines depending on stage of succession, retention levels, and focal taxa. We used an operational-scale, fully replicated factorial experiment to determine the effects of both tree retention (none, dispersed, aggregated) and woody residue harvesting (no removal, 20% retention, all removed) on breeding bird and small mammal communities in aspen forests 7-8 years after harvest. Bird community metric responses showed a clear and consistent positive response to tree retention;both tree retention configurations resulted in higher total abundance, increased diversity, and higher species richness compared to stands with no tree retention. There was no difference in community metrics between the retention configurations and no evidence that early successional species were negatively affected by tree retention. Total abundance of small mammals was lower in clear-cuts compared to tree retention treatments;moreover, clear-cut stands had lower species diversity compared to stands with the aggregated tree retention. There were limited effects of biomass harvest treatments on small mammal communities, likely because actual biomass removal was much lower than experimental targets. Overall, our results provide conclusive evidence on the continued benefits of tree retention on wildlife communities se0ven and eight years post-harvest in regenerating aspen forests.

关键词： Insect herbivores   network structure   network descriptors   plant-insect interactions   specialisation   trophic guilds  

摘要： 1. Herbivorous insects can be classified into several trophic guilds with different levels of specialisation on their host plants, which may influence the topological structure of their trophic networks. The present study tested the hypothesis that the structure of plant-herbivore networks differs between guilds of galling, sucking, and chewing insects. 2. Six areas of Neotropical savannas were studied in two localities in the North of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. In each area, interactions between plant and insect species were used to build networks for different guilds. 3. In total, 18 plant-herbivore networks were built, comprising 317 insect morphospecies, 50 plant species, and 489 distinct interactions. The networks were characterised using species richness and different network topological measures (connectance, modularity, nestedness, and specialisation). 4. The results obtained showed no difference in species richness, network size, and connectance between distinct insect herbivore guilds. However, it was found that modularity was higher for exophagous than galling insect networks and nestedness was higher for chewers than for other guilds. On the other hand, galling insect networks showed higher specialisation than exophagous insect networks, and sucking insect networks were more specialised than chewing insect networks. 5. The findings of the present study indicate that, although species richness did not differ between insect guilds of herbivores in Neotropical savannas, the topological structure of networks is sensitive to biological and ecological differences between these herbivore groups. The present study stands out as the first to systematically compare the network structure of different herbivore guilds in Neotropical savannas.