Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG) is headquartered in Burlington owning extensive environmental protection areas, historic sites and culturally relevant gardens in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the major tourist attractions between Niagara Falls and Toronto, as well as a significant local and regional horticultural, education, conservation, and scientific resource. The mandate is derived by a Provincial Act of 1941 centred on human interaction with the natural world and protection of environmentally significant lands that form the western tip of Lake Ontario. Royal Botanical Gardens spans an area of about 10 km by 4 km, dominated by two coastal wetlands, and glacial-carved landscapes that extend from the lake up to the Niagara Escarpment plateau. The various gardens and natural areas are accessed through nine public entrance locations. It is one of several Prescribed Public Bodies listed under the Ontario Heritage Act.In 2006, in support of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, Royal Botanical Gardens was selected as Canada's National Focal Point for the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) by Environment and Climate Change Canada.The 980 hectares (2,422 acres) of nature sanctuary owned by the Royal Botanical Gardens is largely a remnant of the Dundas Marsh Game Preserve created in 1927. The properties now carry many cultural and environmental designations. Multiple national historic site features are associated with area, with the site featuring prominently as a landing and connection point to other regions of the Great Lakes. It is considered an important plant biodiversity hotspot for Canada, with a very high proportion of the wild plants of Canada in one area; is an Important Bird Area according to Bird Studies Canada; and is part of the Niagara Escarpment World Biosphere Reserve. More than 1,100 species of plants grow within its boundaries including the Bashful Bulrush (Trichophorum planifolium) which is found nowhere else in Canada, and the largest remaining population of one of Canada's most endangered trees, the Red Mulberry (Morus rubra). Both of these plants are listed as Endangered in Canada under the Species at Risk Act. In 2008, the RBG was designated as an Important Amphibian and Reptile Area by CARCNET, the Canadian Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Network. Several plants listed on various Endangered Species Protection programs are held for protection and education purposes in various garden areas.Unusually Royal Botanical Gardens is both the owner of the land under Cootes Paradise and Grindstone Marsh as well as regulator of activities on the water, despite it being an inlet of Lake Ontario. Water area activity regulation was formerly under the Hamilton Harbour Commission (Now Hamilton Oshawa Port Authority) as part of the areas historical federal port regulation. In the late 1970s the Harbour Commission and Royal Botanical Gardens made an agreement transferring regulation of use of the water area to the Gardens in support of its environmental protection mandate. However, Royal Botanical Gardens has no regulatory control over the quality of water flowing into its wetlands.
Las regulaciones del Código Internacional deNomenclatura Botánica establecen que cada seis años, la semana previa al Congreso Internacional, se debatan las posibles modificaciones propuestas previamente en la revista Taxon, órgano de la International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT); para el último congreso, fueron resumidas por McNeill & Turland (2011a).
Grassy ecosystems are among Earth’s most fire-prone landscapes, yet the consequences of their fire regimes for ecosystem carbon (C) storage remain context dependent and incompletely understood. We assessed associations of fire frequency and seasonality with ecosystem C stocks, allocation and composition, and whether soil fertility accounted for these relationships. Across 60 plots spanning medium- and high-altitude grasslands and tapia savannas in Madagascar’s Central Highlands, we combined fire-history data with measurements of C in woody and ground vegetation, litter, fine roots and topsoil (0–5 cm), soil fertility, and pyrogenic C (PyC). Fire-related patterns were associated with frequency rather than seasonality and were strongest in grasslands. Relative to unburned areas, annually burned areas had 99.9% lower odds of woody C occurrence and contained 41.9% less ground-vegetation C, 55.5% less litter C and 27.7% less fine-root C. Conversely, topsoil C was 15.7% greater and belowground C 12.4% greater, while total measured ecosystem C did not differ detectably. Soil fertility explained variation but was not the dominant explanation for fire–C relationships. Aboveground indicators may therefore misrepresent fire-related C outcomes. Carbon-oriented management and monitoring should consider fire frequency, ecosystem context, and above- and belowground C pools rather than changes in burning seasonality alone.
Summary Two threatened new species of Podostemaceae belonging to the genus Inversodicraea, I. joulei and I. lebbiei , both from the Republic of Sierra Leone, are described and illustrated. A first record in Sierra Leone of the genus Lestestuella is also reported. Inversodicraea is the most species-rich genus of Podostemaceae in Africa and now comprises 38 species. Inversodicraea joulei is easily recognised because it has a persistent spine distally on the median rib of each fruit valve, and scattered, membranous scale-leaves with broadly rounded apices, while Inversodicraea lebbiei is distinct in having narrowly triangular robust scale-leaves which are inrolled, spreading distally, and completely covering the stem, arranged in five ranks. Inversodicraea joulei is known from a single location with three sites while I. lebbiei is known from two locations each with one site. Using the latest IUCN Red List guidance, Inversodicraea joulei is assessed as Critically Endangered and I. lebbiei is assessed as Endangered, due to threats from dam construction projects, agricultural practices and mining activities, resulting in high levels of siltation on rocks in the fast-flowing rivers where these species grow.
Background and Aims Fine root morphology underlies the resource acquisition strategy of species, yet its development during root lifespan remains underexplored. Focusing on rhizomatous herbs, a promising system for root ontogeny research, we used root position along the rhizome as a proxy of root age and asked: how much do root traits differ between young and old fine roots?Methods We collected whole clonal fragments of 19 temperate eudicot herbaceous species in Czechia, central Europe, always at two localities (per species) differing in moisture. We measured fine root morphological traits (in old and young parts of rhizomes), rhizome traits and above-ground biomass.Key Results Root tissue density increased and specific root length decreased with fine root age in the studied species. Fine root diameter showed no overall change in response to root age but increased with root age in plants with longer rhizomes, possibly owing to greater age variation along longer rhizomes. The changes in fine root traits were small in magnitude in comparison to between-species differences in trait values and were not affected by site moisture or nutrient status.Conclusions Our results suggest that fine root traits change during root lifespan, shifting towards higher root tissue density, larger diameter and smaller specific root length. This can lead to local trait variation within a single root system, possibly affecting small-scale processes, such as below-ground competition. On the level of species, this variation is relatively small and thus need not be reflected in root sampling methods.
Exclusion periods (i.e., periods when activities are not permitted near or in-water) are among the most commonly applied harm mitigation measures for freshwater fish and fish habitat. We used a 25 year dataset collected at a wetland entrance in Lake Ontario, Canada to assess the efficacy of coolwater (15 March – 31 May) and warmwater (01 May – 15 July) exclusion periods. When both are applied, all 16 evaluated fishes are well protected (i.e., >70% of their spawning run is protected); however, when only one period is applied protection declined, particularly for early-arriving warmwater fishes. If activities continued into the first few weeks of an exclusion period, risk increased for early arriving fishes. Interannual variation in peak arrival timing was high and the development of models that forecast arrival timing based on within-year conditions (e.g., water temperatures) is recommended. Such models would inform risk-based within-year decision making on whether activities can continue into an exclusion period. Overall, results support the continued application of exclusion periods as an effective measure for mitigating harm to fish and fish habitat.
