Vegetación del entorno del balneario / The vegetation of Olmedo spa environment

Se estudia la vegetación del entorno del balneario de Olmedo, en función de factores edáficos, bioclimáticos, biogeográficos y florísticos. Ello nos permite identificar y delimitar las comunidades vegetales climácicas y sus etapas seriales más representativas. La ordenación del trabajo se estructura en torno a las series de vegetación reconocidas en el territorio comenzando con las cabezas de serie climatófilas y edafohigrófilas. Con el fin de facilitar la comprensión de la descripción de las distintas comunidades vegetales estudiadas en el texto y de las plantas medicinales más representativas, incluímos una serie de fotografías en color tanto de los distintos biotopos, como de algunas de las plantas medicinales espontáneas encontradas en el territorio. En esta contribución intentamos poner de manifiesto el alto valor ecológico y paisajístico que atesora el territorio estudiado. Destacamos la ayuda que para nosotros ha representado la memoria doctoral realizada por el farmacéutico D. Daniel Gutiérrez Martín sobre la flora del partido judicial de Olmedo en 1908. Además, reseñamos la colaboración realizada por el Dr. Gutiérrez Martín en la recogida en el término municipal de de Valladolid del interesante taxon Rhaponticoides alpina (= Rhaponticoides linaresii (Lázaro Ibiza) M.V. Agab. & Greuter; = Centaurea linaresii Lázaro Ibiza = Centaurea alpina L.), descrita por D. Blas Lázaro Ibiza en el género Centaurea. Finalmente se incluyen algunas rutas botánicas con el fin de visitar ciertos ecosistemas vegetales de alto valor ecológico de la comarca de Tierra de Pinares

The vegetation is studied in the area around the Olmedo spa, in terms of its soil, bioclimatic, biogeographical and floristic factors. This allows us to identify and delimit the climactic plant communities and their most representative serial stages. The ordination of the work is structured around the recognised plant series in the territory, starting with the climatophilous and edaphohygrophilous heads of series. A selection of diverse graphic material is provided to document the statements in the text. The work highlights the important ecological and scenic value of the territory in the study. Particular emphasis is given to the contribution of the 1908 doctoral thesis of the pharmacist Daniel Gutiérrez Martín on the flora of the district of Olmedo, of which one noteworthy feature is his herborisation of the interesting taxon Rhaponticoides alpina (= Rhaponticoides linaresii (Lázaro Ibiza) M.V. Agab. & Greuter; = Centaurea linaresii Lázaro Ibiza; = Centaurea alpina L.) described by Blas Lázaro Ibiza in the genus Centaurea. Finally, the work also includes a number of commentaries on medicinal plants in the study area and some botanical routes for the purpose of visiting certain plant ecosystems of high ecological value in the Tierra de Pinares region. The syntaxonomical checklist of the vegetation in the territory is also provided

'Hemiepiphyte': a confusing term and its history.

BACKGROUND AND SCOPE: Over more than 120 years of scientific study since Schimper's seminal work, the recognized categories of structurally dependent plants have changed several times. Currently, ignoring parasitic mistletoes, it is usual to distinguish four functional groups: (1) true epiphytes; (2) primary hemiepiphytes; (3) secondary hemiepiphytes; and (4) climbing plants, i.e. lianas and vines. In this Viewpoint, it is argued that the term secondary hemiepiphytes (SHs) is misleading, that its definition is hard to impossible to apply in the field and, possibly causally related to this conceptual problem, that the use of this category in field studies is inconsistent, which now hampers interpretation and generalization. CONCLUSIONS: Categories will frequently fail to capture gradual biological variation, but terms and concepts should be as unambiguous as possible to facilitate productive communication. A detailed analysis of the conceptual problems associated with the term SH and its application in scientific studies clearly shows that this goal is not fulfilled in this case. Consequently, the use of SH should be abandoned. An alternative scheme to categorize structurally dependent flora is suggested.

A plea for modern botanical collections to include DNA-friendly material.

Botanists have long collected herbarium specimens during their expeditions, and the importance of such collections is broadly acknowledged nowadays. It is largely recognized that material for molecular studies must be accompanied by herbarium material to be deposited in a recognized herbarium (vouchers). By contrast, the collection of herbarium specimens with no material for genetic analyses is unfortunately still common. The evolution of science and the need to face new environmental challenges require some changes in the way science is planned and performed. Here, we highlight some key scientific areas which could greatly benefit from such DNA-friendly collections, and we make a plea - and a call to all botanists - for the routine collection of DNA-friendly material together with herbarium specimens.

Nomenclatural and taxonomic problems related to the electronic publication of new nomina and nomenclatural acts in zoology, with brief comments on optical discs and on the situation in botany.

In zoological nomenclature, to be potentially valid, nomenclatural novelties (i.e., new nomina and nomenclatural acts) need first to be made available, that is, published in works qualifying as publications as defined by the International Code of zoological Nomenclature ("the Code"). In September 2012, the Code was amended in order to allow the recognition of works electronically published online after 2011 as publications available for the purpose of zoological nomenclature, provided they meet several conditions, notably a preregistration of the work in ZooBank. Despite these new Rules, several of the long-discussed problems concerning the electronic publication of new nomina and nomenclatural acts have not been resolved. The publication of this amendment provides an opportunity to discuss some of these in detail. It is important to note that: (1) all works published only online before 2012 are nomenclaturally unavailable; (2) printed copies of the PDFs of works which do not have their own ISSN or ISBN, and which are not obtainable free of charge or by purchase, do not qualify as publications but must be seen as facsimiles of unavailable works and are unable to provide nomenclatural availability to any nomenclatural novelties they may contain; (3) prepublications online of later released online publications are unavailable, i.e., they do not advance the date of publication; (4) the publication dates of works for which online prepublications had been released are not those of these prepublications and it is critical that the real release date of such works appear on the actual final electronic publication, but this is not currently the case in electronic periodicals that distribute such online prepublications and which still indicate on their websites and PDFs the date of release of prepublication as that of publication of the work; (5) supplementary online materials and subsequent formal corrections of either paper or electronic publications distributed only online are nomenclaturally unavailable; (6) nomenclatural information provided on online websites that do not have a fixed content and format, with ISSN or ISBN, is unavailable. We give precise examples of many of these nomenclatural problems. Several of them, when they arise, are due to the fact that the availability of nomenclatural novelties now depends on information that will have to be sought not from the work itself but from extrinsic evidence. As shown by several examples discussed here, an electronic document can be modified while keeping the same DOI and publication date, which is not compatible with the requirements of zoological nomenclature. Therefore, another system of registration of electronic documents as permanent and inalterable will have to be devised. ZooBank also clearly needs to be improved in several respects. Mention in a work of its registration number (LSID) in ZooBank would seem to be possible only if this registration has occurred previously, but some works that have purportedly been registered in ZooBank are in fact missing on this web application. In conclusion, we offer recommendations to authors, referees, editors, publishers, libraries and the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, in the hope that such problems can be limited along with the potential chaos in zoological nomenclature that could result, if careful attention is not paid to the problems we highlight here, from a somewhat misplaced, and perhaps now widespread, understanding that electronic publication of nomenclatural novelties is now allowed and straightforward. We suggest that, as long as the problematic points linked to the new amendment and to electronic publication as a whole are not resolved, nomenclatural novelties continue to be published in paper-printed journals that have so far shown editorial competence regarding taxonomy and nomenclature, which is not the case of several recent electronic-only published journals.

Probability of identification: a statistical model for the validation of qualitative botanical identification methods.

A qualitative botanical identification method (BIM) is an analytical procedure that returns a binary result (1 = Identified, 0 = Not Identified). A BIM may be used by a buyer, manufacturer, or regulator to determine whether a botanical material being tested is the same as the target (desired) material, or whether it contains excessive nontarget (undesirable) material. The report describes the development and validation of studies for a BIM based on the proportion of replicates identified, or probability of identification (POI), as the basic observed statistic. The statistical procedures proposed for data analysis follow closely those of the probability of detection, and harmonize the statistical concepts and parameters between quantitative and qualitative method validation. Use of POI statistics also harmonizes statistical concepts for botanical, microbiological, toxin, and other analyte identification methods that produce binary results. The POI statistical model provides a tool for graphical representation of response curves for qualitative methods, reporting of descriptive statistics, and application of performance requirements. Single collaborator and multicollaborative study examples are given.

Electronic revolution in plant taxonomy.

This Editorial highlights recent changes to the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature and the implications these changes have for electronic journals.

Changes to publication requirements made at the XVIII International Botanical Congress in Melbourne - what does e-publication mean for you?

Changes to the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature are decided on every 6 years at Nomenclature Sections associated with International Botanical Congresses (IBC). The XVIII IBC was held in Melbourne, Australia; the Nomenclature Section met on 18-22 July 2011 and its decisions were accepted by the Congress at its plenary session on 30 July. Several important changes were made to the Code as a result of this meeting that will affect publication of new names. Two of these changes will come into effect on 1 January 2012, some months before the Melbourne Code is published. Electronic material published online in Portable Document Format (PDF) with an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) or an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) will constitute effective publication, and the requirement for a Latin description or diagnosis for names of new taxa will be changed to a requirement for a description or diagnosis in either Latin or English. In addition, effective from 1 January 2013, new names of organisms treated as fungi must, in order to be validly published, include in the protologue (everything associated with a name at its valid publication) the citation of an identifier issued by a recognized repository (such as MycoBank). Draft text of the new articles dealing with electronic publication is provided and best practice is outlined. To encourage dissemination of the changes made to the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants, this article will be published in BMC Evolutionary Biology, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, Brittonia, Cladistics, MycoKeys, Mycotaxon, New Phytologist, North American Fungi, Novon, Opuscula Philolichenum, PhytoKeys, Phytoneuron, Phytotaxa, Plant Diversity and Resources, Systematic Botany and Taxon.

Air pressure in clamp-on leaf chambers: a neglected issue in gas exchange measurements.

Air pressure in leaf chambers is thought to affect gas exchange measurements through changes in partial pressure of the air components. However, other effects may come into play when homobaric leaves are measured in which internal lateral gas flow may occur. When there was no pressure difference between the leaf chamber and ambient air (DeltaP=0), it was found in previous work that lateral CO(2) diffusion could affect measurements performed with clamp-on leaf chambers. On the other hand, overpressure (DeltaP>0) in leaf chambers has been reported to minimize artefacts possibly caused by leaks in chamber sealing. In the present work, net CO(2) exchange rates (NCER) were measured under different DeltaP values (0.0-3.0 kPa) on heterobaric and homobaric leaves. In heterobaric leaves which have internal barriers for lateral gas movement, changes in DeltaP had no significant effect on NCER. For homobaric leaves, effects of DeltaP>0 on measured NCER were significant, obviously due to lateral gas flux inside the leaf mesophyll. The magnitude of the effect was largely defined by stomatal conductance; when stomata were widely open, the impact of DeltaP on measured NCER was up to 7 mumol CO(2) m(-2) s(-1) kPa(-1). Since many other factors are also involved, neither DeltaP=0 nor DeltaP>0 was found to be the 'one-size fits all' solution to avoid erroneous effects of lateral gas transport on measurements with clamp-on leaf chambers.