Coexistence In Communities Research Articles

Thermal tolerance in Drosophila: Repercussions for distribution, community coexistence and responses to climate change.

Here we combined controlled experiments and field surveys to determine if estimates of heat tolerance predict distributional ranges and phenology of different Drosophila species in southern South America. We contrasted thermal death time curves, which consider both magnitude and duration of the challenge to estimate heat tolerance, against the thermal range where populations are viable based on field surveys in an 8-year longitudinal study. We observed a strong correspondence of the physiological limits, the thermal niche for population growth, and the geographic ranges across studied species, which suggests that the thermal biology of different species provides a common currency to understand how species will respond to warming temperatures both at a local level and throughout their distribution range. Our approach represents a novel analytical toolbox to anticipate how natural communities of ectothermic organisms will respond to global warming.

РЕЛІГІЙНА ТОЛЕРАНТНІСТЬ В УКРАЇНСЬКОМУ СУСПІЛЬСТВІ: НАБУТИЙ ДОСВІД , УПРОВАДЖЕННЯ

The problem of tolerance in inter-religious relations and that of deepening the tolerantisation of society is an urgent problem in Ukraine in the conditions of the challenges of the 21st century. Interconfessional and inter-religious relations in Ukraine are in fact a complicated system of mutual dependencies of the subjects of relations and their bonds. Tolerance in relations, a dialogue between confessions religions are becoming nowadays the imperative conditions for a practical settling problematic issues, the cultural and psychological basis only availability of which makes it possible to have a constructive cooperation and co-existence of religious, national and other communities in a поликонфессиональном, полиэтнонациональном государстве, каковым есть Украина. A study of the formulated problem from the point of view of the interpretation of the notion "tolerance" in the scientific and social discources reveals a partially different interpretation of the above said term notion both inside the mentioned discources, and between those too. Especially, this situation becomes more complicated due to inter-disciplinary studies, because of its actualisation in mass-media and after using the notion "tolerance" in the subjective meaning by representatives of various civilisationally-religious and philosophically-political communities or societies (while referring to quasi-legal documents like "declarations" or "manifests" concerning tolerance, including here that in the religious sphere too). That is why it is suggested to consider tolerance not as a socio-cultural phenomenon, but as a quality that is acquired artificially resulting from a target-oriented upbringing. Though, there is still a question, if the qualification of this quality as only a "positive" one, and, as this quality is acquired mainly resulting from a social forcing (through educational and upbringing institutions) or social disapproval. Then, then if that does not mean "intolerance to intolerance"? At this background interconfessional and interchurch relations in Ukraine have been considered lately as not identical and controversial, and there is no hope for a very optimistic result of the development of those relations in the future. We have to be very careful in making conclusions of the prospective noticeable improvement in the relations between confessions, churches and, consequently, between the believers, as there is a whole set of objective and subjective reasons for that, as well as because of a constantly changing of socio-political and spiritual contexts of the processes taking place within the Ukrainian social environment, and beyond its border. Tolerance in relations, dialoging between confessions and religion are becoming nowadays the imperative conditions for a practical settling problematic issues, the culturally-psychological basis only the availability of which makes it possible attainment of a constructive cooperation and co-existence of religious, national and other communities or societies in a poli-confessional, poli-ethnonational state, what Ukraine is.

Spatial and temporal dynamics of actinobacteria in drinking water reservoirs: Novel insights into abundance, community structure, and co-existence model

The control of taste and odor (T&O) in drinking water reservoirs is the main challenge for water supply. T&O is mainly derived from actinobacteria during non-algal blooms. However, few studies have investigated the actinobacterial community in reservoirs, especially the effects of water quality parameters on actinobacteria. This study analyzed the environmental driving force of the actinobacterial community composition and change in time and space through structural equations and network in drinking water reservoirs. The results showed a high abundance of actinobacteria, up to 2.7 × 104 actinobacteria per 1 L, in the hypolimnion of the Lijiahe reservoir in September, which is one order of magnitude greater than that in the Jinpen reservoir. The two drinking water reservoirs had similar dominant genera, mainly Sporichthya sp., and Mycobacterium sp., and difference in the actinobacterial proportions. However, there was a large difference at the dominant species. Rhodococcus fascians (4.02%) was the dominant species in the Lijiahe reservoir, while Mycobacterium chlorophenolicum (6.64%) was the dominant species in the Jinpen reservoir. Network analysis revealed that the structure of the network in the Lijiahe reservoir was more unstable; thus, it was vulnerable to environmental disturbances. In addition, a low abundance of species may play a critical role in the actinobacterial community structure of aquatic ecosystems. Structural equation modeling analysis suggested that water temperature, dissolved oxygen, and nutrition were the dominant factors affecting the abundance and community of actinobacteria. Overall, these findings broaden the understanding of the distribution and co-existence of actinobacterial communities in drinking water reservoirs and provide valuable clues for the biological controls of T&O and reservoir management.

ՏԻԳՐԱՆ ՄԵԾԻ ԱՆՁԻ ԵՎ ԳՈՐԾՈՒՆԵՈՒԹՅԱՆ ԳՆԱՀԱՏԱԿԱՆԻ ՇՈՒՐՋ / ABOUT ASSESSING THE PERSONALITY AND ACTIVITIES OF TIGRANES THE GREAT

Objectively, thanks to the efforts of Tigranes a socio-psychological interethnic situation was formed, which was supposed to contribute to the formation of the consciousness of belonging to a new supra-ethnic spiritual community among various peoples, their unity based on the priority of universal ethical ideas. However, the coexistence of the ethnic communities in Tigranakert went not along the path of unity and harmony, but along the path of mutual alienation and deepening hostility between them - between the Hellenes and the "barbarians".

Pollinator-mediated facilitation alleviates pollen limitation in a plant-hummingbird network.

Facilitation and competition among plants sharing pollinators have contrasting consequences for plant fitness. However, it is unclear whether pollinator-mediated facilitation and competition may affect pollen limitation (potential contribution of pollination to fitness) in pollination networks. Here, we investigated how pollinator sharing affects pollen limitation in a tropical hummingbird-pollinated community marked by facilitation. We employed indices describing how much a plant species potentially affects the pollination of other co-flowering species through shared pollinators (acting degree) and is affected by other co-flowering species (target degree) within the plant-hummingbird network. Since facilitation often increases pollination quantity but not necessarily quality, we expected both indices to be associated with reductions in pollen limitation estimates that depend on pollination quantity (fruit set and seed number) rather than estimates more strictly related to quality (seed weight and germination). We found that both indices were associated with reductions in pollen limitation only for seed weight and germination. Thus, facilitation occurred via qualitative estimates of pollen limitation. Our results suggest that facilitation may enhance plant fitness estimates even if quantitative components of plant fecundity are already saturated. Overall, we showed that pollinator-mediated indirect effects in a multispecies context are important drivers of plant fitness estimates with consequences for coexistence in diverse communities.

土壤动物肠道微生物多样性研究进展

PDF HTML阅读 XML下载 导出引用 引用提醒 土壤动物肠道微生物多样性研究进展 DOI: 10.5846/stxb202009182433 作者: 作者单位: 作者简介: 通讯作者: 中图分类号: 基金项目: 国家自然科学基金面上项目（42071059，41671259） A review on gut microbial diversity of soil animals Author: Affiliation: Fund Project: 摘要 | 图/表 | 访问统计 | 参考文献 | 相似文献 | 引证文献 | 资源附件 | 文章评论 摘要:随着分子生物学技术方法的快速发展，动物肠道微生物已成为医学、动物生理学与微生物生态学等研究领域热点。土壤动物种类繁多，分布广泛，其作为陆地生态系统重要组分，是驱动生态系统功能的关键因子。土壤动物体内的微生物由于与宿主长期共存，在与宿主协同进化中形成了丰富多样的群落结构，能够影响土壤动物本身的健康，进而介导土壤动物生态功能的实现。近些年，土壤动物肠道微生物工作方兴未艾，日渐得到重视。总结了四个部分内容：1）首先总结了土壤动物肠道微生物多样性领域的研究现状，该领域年发文量逐年增长，且近十年增长快速。土壤模式生物肠道微生物多样性研究较多且更为深入。土壤动物肠道微生物多样性组成与驱动机制、共存机制及群落构建的理论研究是该领域前沿；2）进而展示了土壤动物肠道微生物多样性组成和研究方法，土壤动物肠道菌群组成以变形菌门、厚壁菌门、放线菌门和拟杆菌门为主。早期工作基于传统分离培养，近年来新一代测序技术推动了该领域发展；3）接着关注了土壤动物肠道微生物的生态学功能，总体上体现在肠道微生物能帮助宿主分解食物基质、参与营养利用、影响寿命和繁殖及提高宿主免疫能力，且其能够影响土壤动物的气体排放及介导其对生态系统的元素转化循环；4）最后重点阐述了影响土壤动物肠道微生物的主要因素（包含宿主和环境因素），土壤动物肠道微生物群落与宿主肠道形态、系统发生、食性、发育阶段及栖息生境和环境污染物息息相关。研究可增加人们对土壤动物肠道微生物的组成和多样性的认识，并帮助深入思考肠道微生物及其同宿主互作机制对土壤生物多样性及生态系统功能的影响。 Abstract:With the rapid development of molecular techniques, gut microbiota of animals have become a hot topic in the fields of medicine, animal physiology and microbial ecology. Soil animals, with high species diversity and wild distribution, are important organisms playing significantly functional roles in terrestrial ecosystems. Associations of microbiota with their animal hosts are evolutionary products of interactions between the two parties. The animal-associated microbiota may indirectly regulate ecosystem functions by influencing host physiological functions. In the recent years, studies on gut microbiota of soil animals have gained much attention. Here, 1) we summarized the current research progresses in studies on microbial community associated with soil animals:Number of publications of this research field increased, especially in the past decade; most of the gut microbial studies focused on soil model animals; frontiers of the research topics included species composition, co-existence and assembly processes of gut microbial communities. 2) We described microbial compositions in soil animal gut, and introduced the common approaches used in the field:Dominant microbial taxa included Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria and Bacteroidetes; while early work was mainly based on culturing methods, new sequencing technology had advanced the field recently. 3) We described biological and ecological functions provided by gut microbiota:Gut microbiota could help soil animals in digesting compound food resources, participate in host nutrient assimilation, affect host lifetime and reproduction and adjust host immune capacity; they may also indirectly affect gas emission and mediate nutrient cycling in soil ecosystems. 4) We discussed the main drivers, including host attributes and environmental factors, that influenced gut microbiota of soil animals:The gut microbial community was closely related to host intestinal morphology, phylogeny, feeding habits and developmental stages, as well as habitat and environmental pollutants. This review can help to understand composition and diversity of gut microbiota of soil animals and advance our knowledge on the roles played by gut microbiota in soil biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. 参考文献 相似文献 引证文献

Ihsanas Islamic Ethical Virtue For Neighborhood Community Coexistence

Abstract: This study demonstrates that there is a need of addressing neighborhood relationships in contemporary times. And in this regard, a position from Islam is considered in which neighborly relationships are based on Quranic ethical virtue ihsan i.e., doing good to others. The word neighbor in the Quran and Hadith is a general term that is not discriminatory. It includes Muslims and non-Muslims. This insight is very useful for building relationships in multicultural and multireligious communities for harmony and peace. To locate a neighbor, though there are jurisprudential opinions, leaving it to its customary use is preferred in this study. The neighborhood rights and duties are given in detail. And it is also demonstrated that those prophetic narrations in which harming neighbors or committing sins against them is considered as the consequence of the absence of faith in fact show the disgust of such sinful acts; therefore, a sinful Muslim is not considered as a non-believer. The harm is especially illustrated with infringing the privacy of a neighbor. It has been shown that Ihsan includes ethically both non-maleficence and beneficence. Most of the prophetic traditions can be classified under these two categories. In addition to this, it is also shown that the neighborhood relations in Islam also include the Golden Rule which is all-encompassing and in principle exhaustive.

Sosyal Ağlarda Çokkültürlülük Üzerine İnceleme: Youtube Tepki Videoları

Sosyal Ağlarda Çokkültürlülük Üzerine İnceleme: Youtube Tepki Videoları

Cultural Diversity and Peaceful Coexistence: A Reflection on Some Selective School Textbooks

Bangladesh adheres to the principles and values of respecting cultural, religious, and ethnic diversities and has enriched school textbooks for meeting demands of the society and preparing young generations as much as possible for future with adequate facts, well-known perspectives and diverse worldviews. School textbooks are one of the critical instruments of preparing young generations for future—with the values of respect, tolerance, mutual understanding, cooperation, unity, prosperity, partnership and humanity. However, sometimes textbooks could produce counter-productive outcomes if contents were not developed with well-thoughts and prudence. They also constitute a compulsion for a country to realise how the young children could be prepared with the values of maintaining and ensuring peace, accepting cultural diversity, and respecting the ethos of peaceful coexistence of multi-ethnic and multi-religious communities living in a society. As an elementary level effort, this paper has focused on some selective secondary level textbooks in Bangladesh to understand how the issues of cultural diversity and peaceful coexistence have been represented. There has been a plenty of textbook contents described and touched on the aspects of cultural diversity in various ways to enlighten students about pluralism and values of social cohesion. However, a more delicate and detailed presentation of some issues could help students socialisation process and of learning about respecting and accepting the diversity of all kinds better. Some more visual representations of diverse cultures and practices, and more practical tasks on valuing rights, dignity, tolerance, and empathy could benefit them further. Nonetheless, there is an essence of having skilled and qualified teachers who could play sincere roles in teaching such values in appropriate educational environments.
 Social Science Review, Vol. 37(2), Dec 2020 Page 59-86

Farmers’ Perceptions of White-Faced Capuchins (Cebus imitator) and Human–Primate Coexistence in Rural Communities of Renacimiento District, Chiriquí Province, Panama

Farmers’ Perceptions of White-Faced Capuchins (Cebus imitator) and Human–Primate Coexistence in Rural Communities of Renacimiento District, Chiriquí Province, Panama

Facultative seed predators drive community-level indirect effects of mast seeding

Mast seeding is a resource pulse that is thought to be a strategy in plants to satiate obligate seed predators. Behavioral responses of facultative consumers receive less attention in mast seeding studies despite evidence that they may be more important to community-level indirect effects. We designed an acorn addition experiment to test the hypothesis that mast seeding in oaks (Quercus spp.) generates indirect effects on the plant community by generating a behavioral response in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)—the largest herbivore in the ecosystem and a facultative seed predator. Deer activity at masting trees increased substantially for months following acorn addition. Deer may require multiple dietary sources to satisfy energetic and nutritional demands and are consumers of oaks at multiple life stages. As such, acorn addition generated opposite density-dependent effects on seeds and seedlings. In acorn addition plots, we documented increased seed survival but decreased growth of oak seedlings relative to a common competitor. Importantly, acorn additions also resulted in different local plant assemblages than those at non-masting parent trees, which suggests that beta diversity may increase with localized variation in herbivory pressure. Overall, our results indicate that oaks may promote coexistence in the plant community by modulating spatiotemporal variation in herbivory pressure. These results highlight the important role of facultative consumers in linking resource pulses to the broader community.

O CRITÉRIO DA BAIXA RENDA NA CONCESSÃO DO BENEFÍCIO ASSISTENCIAL À PESSOA IDOSA OU DEFICIENTE

The theme is based mainly on the reality of many Brazilians who are not insured by the INSS (National Social Security Institute) who have some kind of disability or even reached the minimum age to retire. The purpose is to show the reality of many people who are unable to become insured and who depend on making their rights impossible. It deals with the Brazilian social assistance contained in article 203 of the Federal Constitution of 1988, with regard to the distribution of the value of income per capita of the minimum wage and shows that regardless of the situation of each family, there is a great discussion about this regularization in the our legal system. In this sense, the general objective of this study is related to the act of granting better living conditions to beneficiaries who have low income, through the application of the Organic Law on Social Assistance. In addition, the Continuous Payment Benefit will consist of a series of actions, measures designed to meet basic human needs, guaranteeing minimum social conditions for the necessary configuration of a dignified life, and providing health and protection (social security or social security) to prevent misfortunes caused by not working. Therefore, BPC (Continuing Benefit) found its identity in basic protection, as it aims to ensure that beneficiaries enjoy the right to family and community coexistence and social work with their families, contributing to meeting their needs and development your skills and competences.

Emergent spatial patterns of coexistence in species-rich plant communities.

Statistical physics has proved essential to analyze multiagent environments. Motivated by the empirical observation of various nonequilibrium features in Barro Colorado and other ecological systems, we analyze a plant-species abundance model of neutral competition, presenting analytical evidence of scale-invariant plant clusters and nontrivial emergent modular correlations. Such first theoretical confirmation of a scale-invariant region, based on percolation processes, reproduces the key features in natural rainforest ecosystems and can confer the most stable equilibrium for ecosystems with vast biodiversity.

N-induced root exudates mediate the rhizosphere fungal assembly and affect species coexistence

Root exudates play essential roles in shaping root-associated microbial communities in plant-soil systems. However, knowledge regarding the influence of root exudates on soil communities, particularly concerning their assembly processes and species coexistence patterns, remains limited. In this study, we performed a 20-month pot experiment using a nitrogen (N) addition gradient (0, 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, and 15 g N m−2 yr−1), amplicon sequencing, and metabolomics to investigate the effect of short-term N addition on the assembly process and species coexistence of fungal communities, as well as their association with root exudates in the rhizosphere and bulk soils around Bothriochloa ischaemum. The results demonstrated that short-term N addition led to distinct differences in the diversity, composition, assembly process, and co-occurrence networks of fungal communities in the rhizosphere and bulk soils. The diversity of fungal communities in the rhizosphere soil increased with the rate of N input and peaked at N10 treatment; this could be correlated with the increased abundance in long-chain organic acids (LCOAs). However, above the threshold N rate of 10 g N m−2 yr−1, diversity decreased probably because of the high N-induced inhibitory effect on root exudates (i.e., LCOAs). N addition increased the relative abundance of Sordariomycetes in the rhizosphere and decreased the relative abundance of Mortierellomycetes in the bulk soil, while enhancing the abundance of pathotrophs in both bulk and rhizosphere soils. The rhizosphere fungal community was dominated by a stochastic process at a low N input (N0 and N2.5) and by deterministic processes at a high N input (N10 and N15), which is opposite to the trends in the bulk soil. These fungal assembly processes determine the coexistence of fungal species; deterministic processes lead to less interconnected networks in rhizosphere soils that harbor a more complex network than the bulk soil. Associations between the assembly process and species coexistence in the rhizosphere of B. ischaemum were closely related to the changes in root exudates, such as amino acids, short-chain organic acids, and phenols, which were stimulated by N addition. Collectively, our study emphasizes the key roles of root exudates in the establishment of fungal communities in the plant-soil system and furthers our understanding of plant-microbe interactions.

Every bit helps: The functional role of individuals in assembling any plant community, from the richest to monospecific ones

AbstractPlant trait‐based ecology is a powerful extension of the attempt of community ecologists to unveil assembly mechanisms. However, the two main expected determinants of community assembly, niche and neutral processes, can be confused under this framework. Here, we propose to move from trait‐based to phenotype‐based community ecology, accounting for the variation between individuals (phenotypes affected by the abiotic and biotic environment, and vice versa), and explicitly considering their ability to compete with or facilitate its neighbours. This would shift our focus from species’ niche responses to niche specialization of phenotypes, reducing the space for neutrality at the finest scales. The current assembly framework, based mainly on niche complementarity and using species‐average functional traits, has been developed exploring mega‐diverse communities, but it fails at describing poor plant communities. Under this framework, monospecificity would be interpreted as an arena where functionally similar individuals compete, consequently leading to regular patterns, which are rarely found in nature. Our niche specialization framework could help explaining coexistence in rich plant communities, where the higher fraction of functional variation is found between species, whereas the intraspecific trait variation dominates in poor species and monospecific communities. We propose a guide to conduct massive phenotyping at the community scale based on the use of visible and near‐infrared spectroscopy. We also discuss the need to integrate the so‐called plant's eye perspective based on the use of spatial pattern statistics in the current community ecology toolbox.

Evaluating the relative importance of habitat filtering and niche differentiation in shaping the food web of dung-inhabiting predators

Investigation into the mechanisms responsible for community assembly (habitat filtering, niche differentiation) is essential for understanding the processes maintaining coexistence of species rich natural communities. Studies of such mechanisms have up to now been almost exclusively limited to communities of primary producers or consumers, and very few are focused on coexistence of predatory communities. Top-down regulation by predators is on the other hand essential in structuring communities of primary consumers. We therefore present a study focusing on coexistence and assembly in a species rich community of dung-inhabiting predators, investigating the potential effect of their temporal trends (succession, seasonality) on lowering their negative interactions (competition and intra-guild predation). We used field derived predator-prey co-occurrence data in combination with previous observations of trophic interactions and morphological constraints to describe the potential food web of dung-inhabiting insects. We used that food web to establish all combinations of negative interactions among individual species. We then analyzed whether interaction between species successional and seasonal optima could lower or eliminate their negative interactions. The predator prey ratio increased throughout dung pat succession, remaining constant among seasons. We found that the predator size decreased along the successional gradient, while similarly sized predators were evenly distributed across seasons. The succession of dung-inhabiting predators therefore displayed potential for environmental filtering. In contrast, seasonality niche differentiation seems to promote coexistence of species co-occurring along succession. The interaction of both species temporal patterns should significantly reduce or even eliminate the potential negative interactions between dung-inhabiting predators and thus promote high species richness in communities of dung-inhabiting insects.

Consequences of spatial patterns for coexistence in species-rich plant communities

Ecology cannot yet fully explain why so many tree species coexist in natural communities such as tropical forests. A major difficulty is linking individual-level processes to community dynamics. We propose a combination of tree spatial data, spatial statistics and dynamical theory to reveal the relationship between spatial patterns and population-level interaction coefficients and their consequences for multispecies dynamics and coexistence. Here we show that the emerging population-level interaction coefficients have, for a broad range of circumstances, a simpler structure than their individual-level counterparts, which allows for an analytical treatment of equilibrium and stability conditions. Mechanisms such as animal seed dispersal, which result in clustering of recruits that is decoupled from parent locations, lead to a rare-species advantage and coexistence of otherwise neutral competitors. Linking spatial statistics with theories of community dynamics offers new avenues for explaining species coexistence and calls for rethinking community ecology through a spatial lens.

A general theory of coexistence and extinction for stochastic ecological communities.

We analyze a general theory for coexistence and extinction of ecological communities that are influenced by stochastic temporal environmental fluctuations. The results apply to discrete time (stochastic difference equations), continuous time (stochastic differential equations), compact and non-compact state spaces and degenerate or non-degenerate noise. In addition, we can also include in the dynamics auxiliary variables that model environmental fluctuations, population structure, eco-environmental feedbacks or other internal or external factors. We are able to significantly generalize the recent discrete time results by Benaim and Schreiber (J Math Biol 79:393-431, 2019) to non-compact state spaces, and we provide stronger persistence and extinction results. The continuous time results by Hening and Nguyen (Ann Appl Probab 28(3):1893-1942, 2018a) are strengthened to include degenerate noise and auxiliary variables. Using the general theory, we work out several examples. In discrete time, we classify the dynamics when there are one or two species, and look at the Ricker model, Log-normally distributed offspring models, lottery models, discrete Lotka-Volterra models as well as models of perennial and annual organisms. For the continuous time setting we explore models with a resource variable, stochastic replicator models, and three dimensional Lotka-Volterra models.

Is plant reproductive efficiency expressed on a continuum of facilitation and competition?

AbstractQuestionsCompetition and facilitation form a continuum of interactions between plants from intensely negative to intensely positive. Competition has long been understood to be a major selective force driving the expression of adaptive strategies in plants. However, we remain uncertain if facilitation plays a similar role. In previous studies, the relative allocation to reproduction across plant species increases with increasing competition intensity, and this observation is generally consistent with life history theory (rather than traditional plant strategy theory). However, is facilitation also an important force in shaping adaptive strategies in plants?MethodsWe surveyed the literature for plant facilitation studies that included measures of plant performance (e.g. vegetative biomass, height) and reproduction (e.g. reproductive biomass, seed number). We tested for a relationship between relative reproductive efficiency (the allocation to reproduction in the presence of neighbours relative to the allocation of reproduction in the absence of neighbours), and facilitation interaction intensity (i.e. the increase in plant performance due to the presence of neighbours). We also compared this relationship to the previously published relationship between reproductive efficiency and competition intensity to test for a continuum of strategies on an axis of plant–plant interactions from intensely positive (facilitation) to intensely negative (competition).ResultsThe overall relationship between facilitation intensity and the relative reproductive efficiency is a common negative relationship for both annual and perennial life histories. We found a highly significant negative relationship across the competition–facilitation continuum, with reproductive efficiency in the presence of neighbouring vegetation high under intense competition and low under intense facilitation.ConclusionPlant reproductive strategies are expressed on a continuum of interactions from facilitation to competition. This continuum of interactions will be important in understanding how interactions between plants drive the evolution of adaptive strategies and control coexistence and diversity in plant communities.

An Evaluation of Peace Building Strategies in Southwestern Nigeria: Quantitative and Qualitative Examples

This paper evaluated the peace building architecture by United Nations using Southwestern Nigeria as a reference point. Quantitative data were generated from responses to the questionnaire. In addition, the qualitative data were gathered from two sources: interview response and theme coding of Focus Group Discussion. Data collected were analysed using frequency, percentage, mean value and standard deviation as well as content analysis methods. From the descriptive statistics, this paper found out that quick intervention, cross-examination, negotiation, and mediation of differences were evaluated to be the key building strategies adopted for the enhancement of peaceful co-existence in local communities within Southwestern Nigeria. In spite of those good remarks, poor nature of ethnic cooperation underlines the causal reason for incessant communal conflicts in Southwestern Nigeria. It therefore concluded that peace building strategies in Southwestern Nigeria were evidently operationalised with observable inconsistencies from the qualitative data.