maryam sadat salamati1, hossein zeinali2 ,ehdi yousefi3     1- ardestan branch, islamic azad university, ardestan, iran   2- esfahan agricultural and natural research center, isfahan, iran   3- assist. prof, payam noor university, isfahan, iran             received: 10 february 2011 accepted: 26 may 2011     * corresponding author: e-mail: [email protected]       abstract     in order to...

This study evaluated the relationship between the indices known as the Reef Health Index (RHI) and two-dimensional Coral Health Index (2D-CHI) and different representative metrics of biological, ecological and functional diversity of fish and corals in 101 reef sites located across seven zones in the western Caribbean Sea. Species richness and average taxonomic distinctness were used to asses b...

a spring-stream called “ghadamgah” in fars province, southern iran, which holds more than 60 aquatic vertebrate and plant species belonging to 46 genera and 33 families is almost the biologically richest water body of fars province. the diversity is especially in its endemic fishes which are under threats nowadays. one of the factors, if not the one, which has kept this system more or less in i...

Conservation ethics have been based on 2 philosophical value systems: extrinsic value (defined broadly to include all values that derive from something external to the thing valued) and intrinsic value. Valuing biological diversity on the basis of an extrinsic value system is problematic because measurement is often difficult; extrinsic value changes as spatial or temporal scales change; extrin...

Studies of religious and other cultural groups tend to be particularistic or focus on one or more axes of variation. In this article we develop a more comprehensive approach to studying cultural diversity that emulates the study of biological diversity. We compare our cultural ecosystem approach with the axis approach, using the distinction between “tight” and “loose” cultures as an example. We...

Literature data about glycosides from sponges (Porifera, Demospongiae) are reviewed. Structural diversity, biological activities, taxonomic distribution and biological functions of these natural products are discussed.