respect and reverence for water and trees are institutionalised in many ancient civilisations due to socio-cultural traditions, values and beliefs. in iranian societies, respect for trees and water, separately and in composite form as gardens, is a well-known cultural value both before and after islam. therefore, the first part of this paper explains the value and importance of plants and garde...

OBJECTIVE This study examines effects of a school garden intervention on elementary school children's physical activity (PA). METHOD Twelve schools in New York were randomly assigned to receive the school garden intervention (n=6) or to the waitlist control group that later received gardens (n=6). PA was measured by self-report survey (Girls Health Enrichment Multi-site Study Activity Questio...

Local adaptation along steep environmental gradients likely contributes to plant diversity in the Cape Region of South Africa, yet existing analyses of trait divergence are limited to static measurements of functional traits rather than trajectories of individual development. We explore whether five taxa of evergreen shrubs (Protea section Exsertae) differ in their developmental trajectories an...

BACKGROUND Leafcutter ants depend on the cultivation of symbiotic Attamyces fungi for food, which are thought to be grown by the ants in single-strain, clonal monoculture throughout the hundreds to thousands of gardens within a leafcutter nest. Monoculture eliminates cultivar-cultivar competition that would select for competitive fungal traits that are detrimental to the ants, whereas polycultu...

We profiled the microfungal communities in gardens of fungus-growing ants to evaluate possible species-specific ant-microfungal associations and to assess the potential dependencies of microfungal diversity on ant foraging behavior. In a 1-year survey, we isolated microfungi from nests of Cyphomyrmex wheeleri, Trachymyrmex septentrionalis and Atta texana in Central Texas. Microfungal prevalence...

Aiming at the problem of large-scale deformation track and alleys in East Second Mining Area, numerical analysis method is used to analyze stress law roadway. The results show that critical depth roadway 800m, shear deep about 8.7MPa left right shoulders, vertical increases sharply range 0~5.5m from center roadway, 6~ peak value reached within 8m, plastic zone roof 2.6m, zones are 5.2m 5.4m, re...

Agroforestry systems (AFS) can provide positive ecosystem services while at the same time stabilizing yields under increasingly common drought conditions. The effect of distance to trees in alley cropping AFS on yield-related crop parameters has predominantly been studied using point data from transects. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) offer a novel possibility map plant traits with high spatia...