Subterranean herbivores affect the plant community by plant consumption and burrowing activities However, diet selection of subterranean herbivores has not been studied in detail in complex natural fields, mainly for lack of an accurate method to determine diet species, frequency, and biomass Plateau zokors' (Eospalax baileyi) caching habit for the long inclement winter makes it possible to solve this problem We studied the diet composition and biomass in caches and vicinity of plateau zokors' burrow systems We found that plateau zokors are dietary generalist but show a significant selection among the available food items, plant parts, functional groups, organ types, and habitats These results suggested that plateau zokors strictly selected their diet and were able to adjust their foraging strategy according to the different conditions of food abundance and quality Plateau zokors' selective foraging can directly reduce the proportion of toxicity forbs; plateau zokors can be recognized as an important element to influence the alpine meadow plant community and cattle husbandry

Diet selection in overwinter caches of plateau zokor (Eospalax baileyi)

Subterranean life style is characterized by limited food resource and energy consuming burrow behavior. Subterranean rodents are usually recognized as dietary generalists. In the current study, we investigated the species composition of winter caches of plateau zokors (Eospalax baileyi), and the dissimilarity of species composition in caches and in the vicinity of the burrows. We have made our research in Kobresia dominated vegetation at the altitude 3200 m a.s.l. We used the non-parametric method to test the similarities between the relative dry mass of the plant species within caches and their closed vicinity. This method was based on measures of distance between pairs of individual multivariate observations. Our results revealed that although plateau zokors cached most (60) of the plant species found in the vicinity of their burrow systems (66), the cached dry mass was dominated by a few species. Nine plant species accounted for 80% dry mass of plants present in zokors' caches, Polygonum vivi...

https://bioone.org/journals/polish-journal-of-ecology/volume-62/issue-1/104.062.0116/Foraging-Strategy-of-Plateau-Zokors-Eospalax-baileyi-Thomas-When-Collecting/10.3161/104.062.0116.pdf

Foraging Strategy of Plateau Zokors ( Eospalax baileyi Thomas) When Collecting Food for Winter Caches

Green synthesis of nano structured materials isan emerging field for the researchers working in the field of chemical, physical, life sciences, engineering and medical sciences, for the welfare of society.In the present study green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs)was performed by using flowers of Bistorta macrophylla, a\nmedicinal herb of polygonaceae family of Garhwal Himalayas. For green synthesis of AgNPs, the aqueous flowers extract and the aqueous solution of AgNO3(of 5 milli molar concentration) were well mixed in ratios of 1:9.The metal ion present in the solution reduced Ag+1 to Ag0 within three to four days, which was characterized by color\nchange observation, UV, SEM-EDX, XRD, TEM etc. The absorption maxima of AgNPs of Bistorta macrophylla flowers (BMF) was obtained in the range of 451– 454nm for 5mM concentration of AgNO3, and the SEM images revealed that the average clustersize of synthesized Ag nanoparticles from 5BMF1:9ranges from 20 μm– 23μm, while the EDX analysis four elements show their presence as Ag (51.44 weight %), C (22.45 weight %), Cl (1.18 weight %) and O (22.24 weight%) in the synthesized AgNPs of 5mM(BMF1:9).XRD revealed that the crystals nature of synthesized AgNPs were cubic, and TEM results shows that the biosynthesized nanoparticles are agglomerated and irregular shaped in which size ranging from 12 nm to 38 nm. Synthesized AgNPs were also found to be active for potent antibacterial activity against various pathogenic and harmfull bacterial strains of humans like Pseudomonas Sp.(19.5mm), Bacillus cereus(21 mm) and CoNS (Coagulase Negative Staphylococci) (16.4 mm).Synthesized nanomaterial may be active for efficient clinical applications.

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Antimicrobial Activity of AgNPs Synthesized Via Green Approach by Using Flowers ofBistortamacrophylla herb of Tungnath Himalaya Region

The phenols contents in stems,flowers,roots of three species in the genus Polygonum in alpine meadows,including P.viviparum L.,P.sibiricum Laxm.,P.macrophyllum D.Don were determined.The results showed that the highest phenols contents of P.viviparum,P.sibiricum,P.macrophyllum existed in roots,stems and flowers,respectively.The total phenol contents were 67.18,72.41 and 98.12 g/kg,respectively.The simple phenol contents were 31.32,34.90 and 30.16 g/kg,respectively.In addition,tannin contents were 35.86,37.51 and 67.96 g/kg,respectively,condensed tannin were 26.09,36.90,31.69 g/kg,respectively.The phenols contents in stems and roots of both P.viviparum and P.sibiricum were higher than P.macrophyllum,and on the contrary,the phenols contents in flowers of P.macrophyllum was the highest.The order in aspect of protein precipitable capacity of phenols of three species was as P.viviparumP.sibiricumP.macrophyllum.

Ding Xue-zhi

Papers

Analysis of phenols content of three species of Polygonum in alpine meadows