Abstract: In the Amazon basin and the Guiana Shield, white-sand (WS) forests are recognized as a low-resource habitat often composed by a distinct flora with many edaphic endemic plants. Small patches of nutrient-poor white-sand forests can pose a series of challenges to plants and animals. For plants, these challenges have been shown to function as strong filters that in turn drive taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic plant composition. However, very little is known about animal communities in WS forest and the effect that low-resource availability may have on higher trophic levels. Here, we investigate the diversity of both taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity of three Lepidoptera families' (Nymphalidae, Saturniidae, and Sphingidae) assemblages between low-resource (White-Sand Forest) and two adjacent high-resource habitats, terra firme clay and seasonally flooded forests. We found no clear effect of habitat type on taxonomic composition although butterfly and moth species abundance differed among the three contrasted habitats. The WS forest Lepidoptera community is significantly more phylogenetically overdispersed than expected by chance. We suggest that these low-resource habitats filter the number of plant lineages which, in turn, creates a bottom-up control structuring Lepidoptera phylogenetic structure. We recommend long-term sampling on Lepidoptera community both at larval and adult stages that may complement this study and test hypotheses linking herbivore phylogenetic structure to plant resource availability and trophic cascade theory. © 2016 The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation.

Abstract: 1.Considerable debate surrounds the extent to which tropical forests can be managed for resource extraction while conserving biodiversity and ecosystem properties, which depend on functional composition. Here we evaluate the compatibility of these aims by examining the effects of logging on taxonomic and functional diversity and composition in a tropical forest. 2.Twenty years after selective logging, we inventoried 4140 stems regenerating in logging gaps and adjacent undisturbed areas, and we integrated a database of 13 functional traits describing leaf and wood economics of tropical trees. 3.We found no differences in taxonomic and functional richness among habitats, but logging gaps had significantly higher taxonomic and functional evenness. 4.Logging also effected striking, long-term changes in both species and functional composition. In particular, the xylem density of recruits in logging gaps was 6% less than in unlogged forests, leaves were 11% less tough and had 6-13% greater mineral nutrient concentrations. 5.Synthesis and applications. Our results suggest that managers of tropical forests should limit overall surface area converted to logging gaps by creating fewer, larger gaps during selective logging, to reduce impacts on the taxonomic and functional composition of the regenerating stand. Our results suggest that managers of tropical forests should limit overall surface area converted to logging gaps by creating fewer, larger gaps during selective logging, to reduce impacts on the taxonomic and functional composition of the regenerating stand. © 2012 The Authors. Journal of Applied Ecology © 2012 British Ecological Society.

Abstract: The effect of sodium eperuate prepared from Wallaba (Eperua falcata Aubl) extract on zinc corrosion was investigated in alkaline solutions with chloride ions (i.e., simulated concrete pore solutions) by using electrochemical techniques. Sodium eperuate inhibits the corrosion of zinc in 0.1 M NaCl solutions with pH 9.6. As its concentration increases to 1 g/L, the inhibition efficiency reaches approximately 92%. In alkaline solutions with pH 12.6, sodium eperuate has no adverse effect on passivity of zinc, and retards the chloride attack. These suggest that sodium eperuate is an effective inhibitor for the protection of zinc in alkaline environments. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Abstract: The TropiSAR campaign has been conducted in August 2009 in French Guiana with the ONERA airborne radar system SETHI. The main objective of this campaign was to collect data to support the Phase A of the 7th Earth Explorer candidate mission, BIOMASS. Several specific questions needed to be addressed to consolidate the mission concept following the Phase 0 studies, and the data collection strategy was constructed accordingly. More specifically, a tropical forest data set was required in order to provide test data for the evaluation of the foreseen inversion algorithms and data products. The paper provides a description of the resulting data set which is now available through the European Space Agency website under the airborne campaign link. First results from the TropiSAR database analysis are presented with two in-depth analyses about both the temporal radiometric variation and temporal coherence at P-band. The temporal variations of the backscatter values are less than 0.5 dB throughout the campaign, and the coherence values are observed to stay high even after 22 days. These results are essential for the BIOMASS mission. The observed temporal stability of the backscatter is a good indicator of the expected robustness of the biomass estimation in tropical forests, from cross-polarized backscatter values as regarding environmental changes such as soil moisture. The high temporal coherence observed after a 22-day period is a prerequisite for SAR Polarimetric Interferometry and Tomographic applications in a single satellite configuration. The conclusion then summarizes the paper and identifies the next steps in the analysis. © 2012 IEEE.

Abstract: Seeds collected from eight populations of Chir pine (Pinus roxburghii SARG.) from the natural distribution range of the species in Himachal Himalayas in India were analysed isozymatically at 11 enzyme systems. For the enzyme systems studied, 25 gene loci were identified out of which 18 were polymorphic. The observed mean values for genetic variation were slightly lower than mean values reported for Pinus species (number of alleles: 1.65 compared to 2.36; effective number of alleles: 1.13 compared to 1.26; observed heterozygosity: 0.153 compared to 0.179). A small differentiation among populations and large variation within populations were reflected by small value of GST (0.04): Considering the different genetic parameters three populations seem favourable for gene conservation measures.