Because of its potential role in providing ecosystem services and private benefits (food security), the concern about the loss of agrobiodiversity has grown. We explore the links between agrobiodiversity and farm financial benefits in small-scale agroecosystems. We measured crop diversity in a subsistence-oriented agricultural production system: home gardens (n=250) in the Iberian Peninsula. We...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The botanic gardens of the world are now unmatched ex situ collections of plant biodiversity. They mirror two biogeographical patterns (positive diversity-area and diversity-age relationships) but differ from nature with a positive latitudinal gradient in their richness. Whether these relationships can be explained by socio-economic factors is unknown. METHODS Species and ...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether exposure to lawn or garden chemicals was associated with an increased risk of transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the urinary bladder in Scottish Terriers. DESIGN Case-control study. ANIMALS 83 Scottish Terriers with TCC (cases) and 83 Scottish Terriers with other health-related conditions (controls). PROCEDURE Owners of study dogs completed a written quest...

Gardens of fungus-growing ants (Formicidae: Attini) traditionally have been thought to be free of microbial parasites, with the fungal mutualist maintained in nearly pure "monocultures." We conducted extensive isolations of "alien" (nonmutualistic) fungi from ant gardens of a phylogenetically representative collection of attine ants. Contrary to the long-standing assumption that gardens are mai...

A variety of crops are grown in New York City community gardens. Although the production of many crops benefits from pollination by bees, little is known about bee abundance in urban community gardens or which crops are specifically dependent on bee pollination. In 2005, we compiled a list of crop plants grown within 19 community gardens in New York City and classified these plants according to...

Can we move beyond simply networking creative individuals to establishing diverse communities of practice for innovation through discursive methods. Furthermore, can we digitise their creativity activities within an integrative socio-cultural collaborative technology platform that could then support distributed innovation. First, we consider the complexity of creative cultures from the perspect...

OBJECTIVES To determine the prevalence and usage of food gardens in primary schools in three distinct climatic regions of north-eastern Australia. DESIGN Cross-sectional surveys combining quantitative and qualitative data collection. Two separate telephone questionnaires were developed and implemented, according to the presence or absence of a food garden within the school. Main outcome measu...

There are a large number of herbal gardens in India and most of them are not linked and classified the availability of medicinal plant species of these gardens. In this study, the hierarchical clustering technique of data mining was applied on the herbal gardens of India and classified in order to discover meaningful patterns such as what type of habit of medicinal plant species is present in w...

This paper selectively reviews scientific research on the influences of gardens and plants in hospitals and other healthcare settings. The discussion concentrates mainly on health-related benefits that patients realize by simply looking at gardens and plants, or in other ways passively experiencing healthcare surroundings where plants are prominent. The review also briefly addresses other advan...

Domestic gardens may play a vital role in supporting urban insect biodiversity, despite their small size. This paper assesses the abundance, diversity and distribution of insects in urban domestic gardens in the tropics, through a study in the rapidly expanding Indian city of Bangalore. Fifty domestic gardens were studied using a combination of light traps and pitfall traps. We recorded a large...