In 1163, Archbishop Gionata, Abbot of the Monastery of San Nicola of Casole in Puglia （Apulia）, commissioned Pantaleone, a learned monk and artist from the monastery, to decorate the pavement of the cathedral of Otr...In 1163, Archbishop Gionata, Abbot of the Monastery of San Nicola of Casole in Puglia （Apulia）, commissioned Pantaleone, a learned monk and artist from the monastery, to decorate the pavement of the cathedral of Otranto with mosaics. This Italian Romanesque cathedral was dedicated to Santa Maria Annunziata or Saint Mary of The Annunciation. In the interior, the floor design in the shape of a tree contains an elaborate biblical program. The encyclopedic narrative of the mosaic symbolically unveils the meaning of the Tree of Life. The ieonography of the pavement＇s program combines biblical and pagan narratives evolving from a natural realm into a heavenly realm. The natural realm begins at the church＇s entrance with the symbolism of the earth-the roots of a tree-expanding through the nave and transept via the tree＇s trunk and its branches, culminating in the apse, at the end of the church, with the foliage oftbe top of the tree. This natural realm meets with the heavenly realm in two ways： at the crossing of the church or at the sacrificial altar, and at the apse of the church. Before reaching the altar or holy area, between the natural realm and the heavenly realm, the zodiac signs with the labors of the months are depicted.展开更多
Scirpus mariqueter Tang et Zhang is a typical pioneer plant colonizing the bare beaches of the Yangtse River estuary. To explore the life history strategy of the species with reference to environmental physical stre...Scirpus mariqueter Tang et Zhang is a typical pioneer plant colonizing the bare beaches of the Yangtse River estuary. To explore the life history strategy of the species with reference to environmental physical stress, the biomass allocations to different plant components and some related morphological parameters were examined along an elevational gradient within a salt marsh. Authors found that S. mariqueter performed best at medium elevation within the marsh, with relatively high density of shoot and individual ramet dry mass. Biomass allocation to corm was the highest at low elevations, and the least at high elevations, suggesting that a conservative strategy was adopted by the species to cope with the harsh physical conditions at the low elevation. The investment in rhizome decreased from low to high elevations, while the proportion of inflorescence mass increased, indicating that during the life history, the species shifts from predominant asexual reproduction to predominant sexual reproduction. This may be favourable for the species to colonize larger area, and to spread and persist at a meta_population level. Correlation analyses showed that sexual reproduction was inversely related to growth and asexual reproduction. However, it is difficult to determine the relationship between asexual reproduction and growth possibly because of the varied function of the corms of the species in different life history stages.展开更多
文摘In 1163, Archbishop Gionata, Abbot of the Monastery of San Nicola of Casole in Puglia （Apulia）, commissioned Pantaleone, a learned monk and artist from the monastery, to decorate the pavement of the cathedral of Otranto with mosaics. This Italian Romanesque cathedral was dedicated to Santa Maria Annunziata or Saint Mary of The Annunciation. In the interior, the floor design in the shape of a tree contains an elaborate biblical program. The encyclopedic narrative of the mosaic symbolically unveils the meaning of the Tree of Life. The ieonography of the pavement＇s program combines biblical and pagan narratives evolving from a natural realm into a heavenly realm. The natural realm begins at the church＇s entrance with the symbolism of the earth-the roots of a tree-expanding through the nave and transept via the tree＇s trunk and its branches, culminating in the apse, at the end of the church, with the foliage oftbe top of the tree. This natural realm meets with the heavenly realm in two ways： at the crossing of the church or at the sacrificial altar, and at the apse of the church. Before reaching the altar or holy area, between the natural realm and the heavenly realm, the zodiac signs with the labors of the months are depicted.
文摘Scirpus mariqueter Tang et Zhang is a typical pioneer plant colonizing the bare beaches of the Yangtse River estuary. To explore the life history strategy of the species with reference to environmental physical stress, the biomass allocations to different plant components and some related morphological parameters were examined along an elevational gradient within a salt marsh. Authors found that S. mariqueter performed best at medium elevation within the marsh, with relatively high density of shoot and individual ramet dry mass. Biomass allocation to corm was the highest at low elevations, and the least at high elevations, suggesting that a conservative strategy was adopted by the species to cope with the harsh physical conditions at the low elevation. The investment in rhizome decreased from low to high elevations, while the proportion of inflorescence mass increased, indicating that during the life history, the species shifts from predominant asexual reproduction to predominant sexual reproduction. This may be favourable for the species to colonize larger area, and to spread and persist at a meta_population level. Correlation analyses showed that sexual reproduction was inversely related to growth and asexual reproduction. However, it is difficult to determine the relationship between asexual reproduction and growth possibly because of the varied function of the corms of the species in different life history stages.
