Sporting Usefulness Potential of Nine Local Taxa of Grasses for Lawns in the Agro-Ecological Zone with Bimodal Rainfall in Cameroon

The Cameroonian flora has a very high biodiversity that remains largely unexplored. It contains many grasses that can be used for sports lawns, but are currently underutilized. In order to contribute to the improvement of the quality of sports lawns, nine local grass taxa from the agro-ecological zone with bimodal rainfall in Cameroon were evaluated for their potential for sporting use in natural lawns. The method of the Study and Control Group for Varieties and Seeds was used to evaluate the sports lawn characteristics of the taxa. The resistance to trampling and pulling, the density of the lawn, and the aesthetic appearance, which are factors in calculating the sports index, were monitored at two sites, including the experimental space at the University of Yaounde 1 in the Center region and Kagnol 2 in the East region, from January 2017 to January 2020. The monthly lawn characteristic data allowed for the differentiation between the means and the determination of the sports index of the taxa compared to commercialized lawn varieties. The sports index of the evaluated taxa varied: Cynodon dactylon (6.989), Eleusine indica (6.338), Sporobolus natalensis (6.301), Cynodon cf Cynodon dactylon (6.257), Eragrostis tremula (5.939), Sporobolus pyramidalis (5.583), Agrostis rupestris (5.335), Axonopus compressus (4.991), and Digitaria sp. (4.544). These results show that these grass taxa have potential for sporting use in lawn mixtures at different levels of sports disciplines.

Winter Runoff of Nitrogen and Phosphorus from a Rotational Pen Design with Suckler Cows

Keeping beef cattle outdoors during winter reduces costs and improves animal welfare, but increases the risk of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) runoff losses. This study evaluated a rotational pen design on grassland with two groups of suckler cows given access to an expanding staying area and a new feeding area each week (72 cattle ha-1), with one month’s stay per pen. The spatial distribution of excreta and effects on N and P surface runoff was evaluated during six months. The total excreta loads corresponded to 500 kg·N·ha-1 and 50 kg·P·ha-1. New feeding areas did not distribute excretions evenly, which resulted in the highest proportion of excretions (31%) occurring in the first week’s sub-area. The topsoil had significantly higher amounts of mineral-N, mainly as NH4-N (29 - 81 kg·ha-1), than an unaffected area (13 kg·ha-1). Mean total runoff losses were similar for both groups (1.4 kg·P·ha-1 and 9.0 kg·N·ha-1). Around 78% of N and 70% of P runoff losses occurred during the month with cattle present. During the first two weeks with heavy rain, N and P runoff losses were 50% higher from an area with suckler cows than a corresponding vegetated sub-area without cows. The study design did not provide a sufficient distribution of excretions and a high animal density in combination with trampling resulted in unacceptable N and P run-off losses. An environmentally friendly design would need to include frequent moving of all equipment and access to larger areas.

Short-Term Disturbance Effects of Outdoor Education Stream Classes on Aquatic Macroinvertebrates

Outdoor education programs frequently offer stream classes that teach students how to assess water quality based on the composition of aquatic macroinvertebrate communities. Repeatedly using the same site for stream classes can cause disturbance that could negatively impact aquatic macroinvertebrates. However, the impact of outdoor education stream classes on short term temporal trends of aquatic macroinvertebrates has not been evaluated. Our objective was to quantify whether outdoor education stream classes caused localized and short-term impacts on the aquatic macroinvertebrate community. We sampled aquatic macroinvertebrates over a five day period in May 2014 from an impacted riffle subjected to repeated substrate disturbance by outdoor education stream classes and an unimpacted riffle that was not subjected to stream classes within an agricultural stream in central Ohio. We did not observe a difference in macroinvertebrate community response variables between different time periods or among days within the impacted riffle as part of our within riffle analysis. We documented that macroinvertebrate abundance and dorsoventrally flattened clinger abundance was greater within the unimpacted riffle than the impacted riffle. Macroinvertebrate evenness was greater in the impacted riffle than the unimpacted riffle. In the impacted riffle percent clingers was greater on Monday than on Friday. Conversely, in the unimpacted riffle percent clingers was greater on Friday than on Monday. Our results indicated that outdoor education stream classes did not alter short term temporal trends of macroinvertebrate community structure within an impacted riffle, but the stream classes resulted in differences in community structure between an impacted and unimpacted riffle. Our results suggest that outdoor education centers should avoid repeatedly using the same site for their stream classes to prevent negatively impacting aquatic macroinvertebrates.

旅游干扰对西径山植被的影响(英文)

[Objective] Taking Xijing Mountain for example,this study investigates characteristics of roadside plant communities and width changes of trampled vegetations by the tourist road,analyzes influence of tourism activities on environment.[Method] Characteristics of roadside plant communities are studied by applying species diversity index,coverage and other such indexes;from the bottom to the top of Xijing Mountain,investigation objects are selected along the tourist road to measure the trampled width of vegetations.[Result] Characteristics of plant communities,trampled vegetations are both closely related to the design of tourist road.[Conclusion] Suggestions are proposed for the design of tourist road.

New Dinosaur Tracks from the Lower Barremian of Portugal (Areia do Mastro Formation, Cape Espichel)

We present a new tracksite with multiple dinosaur tracks from the lowermost Barremian (Lower Cretaceous) of the Cape Espichel (Sesimbra, Portugal). The tracks are localized on three beds on the top carbonate beds of the Areia do Mastro Formation. Those bioclastic, nodular limestones were deposited in a very shallow subtidal-intertidal, restricted lagoon environment. The track surfaces are very dinoturbated, with a substantial number of tracks. Several tracks assign to sauropods, ornithopods and theropods dinosaurs were recorded. Due to heavy bioturbation and the preservation conditions, it is not possible to define trackways;some preliminary work done on the tracks could disclose some behaviours of their producers. Several species of carnivore and herbivore dinosaurs crossed that large area at different times. Herbivores may have used the lagoon margin as passage between feeding spots, while carnivores frequented the area to hunt in groups or individually.