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Crisis: gasto social y gasto militar

October 13th, 2011 1 comment

En España nos encontramos en una situación de recortes cada vez más graves y brutales de nuestros derechos sociales, en las que la sanidad, la educación y otros bienes comunes se hayan secuestrados por un estado que desvía la riqueza colectiva hacia oscuros intereses económicos. Por eso, frente a las voces de aquellos que dicen que ’no hay dinero’, y que ’hay que apretarse el cinturón’, queremos recordar que uno de cada diez euros que invierte nuestro gobierno es de gasto militar. Queremos denunciar el gasto insostenible que termina siempre suponiendo mantener un ejército, diseñado  además para intervenir en países lejanos bajo los intereses criminales. [Extracto de: insumissia]

¿Cómo solucionar la crisis? Una imágen vale más que mil palabras:

  • España invierte uno de cada diez euros del presupuesto en gasto militar [enlace]
  • 15 razones para seguir indignados [enlace]
  • El 15-O, denuncia el gasto militar: Ni guerra ni recortes sociales. No somos munición para sus crisis [enlace]
  • Comparación entre Gastos Militares y Necesidades Sociales [enlace]
  • Gestionar la crisis es gestionar prioridades: gasto social vs militar [enlace]
  • Si vis pacem, para pacem [enlace]

Differences between resprouters and non-resprouters

October 1st, 2011 No comments

Resprouting is a very important process in plants living in disturbance-prone ecosystems, and the December issue of the journal Plant Ecology is going to be dedicated to this topic (Ecology of plant resprouting in fire-prone ecosystems). During the recent years, and starting from the PERSIST project, we have been comparing functional traits between resprouters and non-resprouters in Mediterranean fire-prone ecosystems, and the last comparison (physiological traits [5]), is included in this special issue. Resprouters and non-resprouters are two plant syndromes in Mediterranean ecosystems that also differ in their evolutionary history [1]. Resprouters tend to exhibit a deeper root-system than non-resprouters that inverse less resources on roots. So one could think that resprouters are better adapted to drought. However, both resprouters and non resprouters coexist, and non-resprouters counteract their lower root allocation by different traits that confer higher drought resistance [2]. Non-resprouters have higher drought resistance at leave level because they have higher water use efficiency (WUE) and higher leaf mass per area (LMA; i.e., higher sclerophylly, lower SLA) [3]. The seedling root structure of non-resprouters also allows them to more efficiently explore the upper soil layer [4]. A recent paper also shows that, when water is non-limiting, non-resprouters showed a better performance of leaf gas exchange traits (higher assimilation, stomatal conductance and transpiration) than resprouters [5]; that is non-resprouters have higher efficiency in resource capture, and thus a better capacity to take advantage of water when it is freely available. In addition, resprouters and non-resprouters also differ in their post-fire germination, as non-resprouters tend to have a greater capacity to both (i) persist after fire by means of recruiting (greater heat-tolerance) and (ii) increase their population after fire (greater heat-stimulated germination), than resprouters [4]. All these results suggest that resprouters and non-resprouters are two contrasted syndromes or functional types in the Mediterranean Basin [6].

Figure: Arbutus unedo resprouting after a fire.

References:

[1] Pausas J.G. & Verdú M. 2005. Plant persistence traits in fire-prone ecosystems of the Mediterranean Basin: A phylogenetic approach. Oikos 109: 196-202. [pdf |doi]

[2] Pausas J.G. 2010. Fire, drought, resprouting: leaf and root traits. URL: jgpausas.blogs.uv.es, 22/Oct/2010.

[3] Paula S. & Pausas J.G. 2006. Leaf traits and resprouting ability in the Mediterranean basin. Functional Ecology 20: 941-947. [pdf | [doi]

[4] Paula S. & Pausas J.G. 2011. Root traits explain different foraging strategies between resprouting life histories. Oecologia 165:321-331. [doipdfblog]

[5] Hernández E.I., Pausas J.G. & Vilagrosa A. 2011. Leaf physiological traits in relation to resprouter ability in the Mediterranean Basin. Plant Ecology 212:1959-1966 [doi| pdf]

[4] Paula S. & Pausas J.G. 2008. Burning seeds: Germinative response to heat treatments in relation to resprouting ability. Journal of Ecology 96 (3): 543 – 552. [pdf | doi]

[6] Pausas, J.G., Bradstock, R.A., Keith, D.A., Keeley, J.E. & GCTE Fire Network. 2004. Plant functional traits in relation to fire in crown-fire ecosystems. Ecology 85: 1085-1100. [pdfjstor] [Ecological Archives E085-029]