The 1960s saw an extraordinary development of international cooperation within European ethnology. The reason were favourable international political circumstances, advanced research work of the progressive generation of ethnographers as well as institutional and paradigm establishment of the European comparative ethnology (Ethnologia Europaea), which was suggested mainly by Sigurd Erixon and his collaborators. Even the generation of exceptional personalities of Czechoslovak (or Czech and Slovak) ethnography participated in the work on large-scale projects; they also were members of supranational research teams and organizations. A plethora of internationally anchored research dealt with transport, grain cultivation and livestock rearing - i.e. themes relating to the agrarian ethnography, whereby it was the SIEF Commission or History and Development of European Agriculture that carried a lot of weight in the coordination of the above research in the late 1960s. The contribution analyses the background and work of the Commission, the results of international projects organised by it, and the influence of the
large-scale research on the development and thematic targets of Czech ethnography in the 1960s through 1980s.
Charakter krajiny je v oblasti centrálních Apenin již na první pohled výrazně různorodý. Dynamicky formovaný reliéf pokrývá pestrá mozaika vegetačních typů. Zdejší lesy jsou od dávných dob obhospodařované pařezinovým způsobem, což je typ managementu, který byl na území bývalého Československa běžný až do minulého století. Typicky šlo o dubové a dubohabrové lesy, jejichž biodiverzita dlouhodbě klesá. Návštěva a studium lesů centrálních Apenin poskytuje hodnotné souvislosti pro řešení problému klesající druhové diverzity v někdejších pařezinách střední Evropy., The landscape of the central Apennines is markedly diverse. Dynamically formed relief is covered by a mosaic of different vegetation types. For centuries, local forests are managed as coppices - type of management common in former Czechoslovakia up to last century. Biodiversity of these oak and oak-hornbeam forests gradually declines due to the abandonment of coppicing. Thus, a visit to the central Apennines and study of their forests provide a valuable insight into the problem of species diversity decline in the former coppices of Central Europe., and František Máliš, Roberto Canullo, Radim Hédl.
The review is done to summarise the history of the discoveries of the many anatomical, agronomical, and physiological aspects of C4 photosynthesis (where the first chemical products of CO2 fixation in illuminated leaves are four-carbon dicarboxylic acids) and to document correctly the scientists at the University of Arizona and the University of California, Davis, who made these early discoveries. The findings were milestones in plant science that occurred shortly after the biochemical pathway of C3 photosynthesis in green algae (where the first chemical product is a three-carbon compound) was elucidated at the University of California, Berkeley, and earned a Nobel Prize in chemistry. These remarkable achievements were the result of ground-breaking pioneering research efforts carried out by many agronomists, plant physiologists and biochemists in several laboratories, particularly in the USA. Numerous reviews and books written in the past four decades on the history of C4 photosynthesis have focused on the biochemical aspects and give an unbalanced history of the multidisciplinary/multinstitutional nature of the achievements made by agronomists, who published much of their work in Crop Science. Most notable among the characteristics of the C4 species that differentiated them from the C3 ones are: (I) high optimum temperature and high irradiance saturation for maximum leaf photosynthetic rates; (II) apparent lack of CO2 release in a rapid stream of CO2-free air in illuminated leaves in varying temperatures and high irradiances; (III) a very low CO2 compensation point; (IV) lower mesophyll resistances to CO2 diffusion coupled with higher stomatal resistances, and, hence, higher instantaneous leaf water use efficiency; (V) the existence of the so-called "Kranz leaf anatomy" and the higher internal exposed mesophyll surface area per cell volume; and (VI) the ability to recycle respiratory CO2 by illuminated leaves.
Factors which have a negative impact on mammal populations were reviewed for all 83 native species occurring in Germany today. Forest management affects most species of the mammal fauna as well as of the sub-groups of Red List species and of species for which a special responsibility for their conservation has been determined in Germany. This is because a high proportion of German mammals are forest-dwelling, which means they are exposed to current harmful forestry practices such as selective harvest of ancient trees. The review also highlights population reduction by direct take of individuals (legal, illegal or accidental) and habitat fragmentation as major conservation problems affecting many species. The analysis of negative impact factors underline the importance of ongoing „traditional“ conservation measures. However, the result of climate change and invasive alien species being less important for conservation, as only few species are affected so far in Germany, is doubtful. The impacts of these two factors may be underestimated owing to a general lack of data. To ensure that conservation problems can be identified and appropriate measures are taken, the implementation of a mammal monitoring programme and specific research projects are needed. International cooperation might be helpful to overcome national shortcomings in mammal conservation in Germany and other European countries.
The paper deals with the activities of the writer Božena Němcová in Slovakia in the years 1851-1855. She visited Slovakia four times in this period (three times she visited her husband who worked here in civil service, her last stay was intended as a cure, while most of the time Němcová devoted to ethnographic research). All her stays resulted in contributions based on active observation, ethnographic and folkloristic research, consultations with a number of Slovak intellectuals dealing with both humanities and natural sciences. The results of the individual stays differ both in form and quality. They proceed from journalistic „causerie“ towards serious attempts of monographic elaboration of natural background, history, demography, sociological, ethnographical and gen-der facts of a given region. The contribution to folkloristic is outstanding. The writer used Slovak inspirations also in her fiction. Thanks to her activities, Bože-na Němcová belongs to the history of Slovak ethnology.
The abandonment of less productive agricultural land and the intensification of agricultural land use are the main features of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that Croatia will enforce now as new member of the EU. Due to
demographic changes and the economic transition in Croatia resulting from
war in the 1990s, substantial tracts of agricultural land were abandoned. We investigated two habitat types in the protected floodplain landscape of Lonjsko polje in the continental part of the country: arable land and pastures.
Both habitats were maintained by agricultural management and suffered from partial abandonment. Land abandonment increased the susceptibility to encroachment by the invasive plant species Amorpha fruticosa. Data on bird communities were obtained during the breeding season in 2010 while there were high water levels in the floodplain. Data were collected from 63 points, and a total of 1447 individuals from 70 species were recorded during
the study. We found that the bird community structure was primarily related to the presence/abandonment of agricultural land use and the habitat type. Further, we detected that the bird community structure in the same habitat type differed by management intensity. Open habitat specialists were most influenced by land abandonment. However, the conservation value (according to the Species of European Conservation Concern value, SPEC) of grazed pastures and abandoned pastures did not differ significantly, in part because the overgrown pastures with high water levels were found to be suitable for Acrocephalus species. The shift in bird community structure between abandoned and managed arable lands were smaller than those
detected in the pastoral communities. Because land abandonment is a widespread phenomenon in Croatia, we emphasize the urgent need
for a nationwide monitoring program for farmland birds to register the resulting changes in farmland bird communities and to develop appropriate agri-environment measures to mitigate the process.