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BEN # 187
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No. 187 March 21, 1998
aceska@victoria.tc.ca Victoria, B.C.
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Dr. A. Ceska, P.O.Box 8546, Victoria, B.C. Canada V8W 3S2
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WORKSHOP ON SYN-TAX 5.1 MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS, ANCHORAGE, ALASKA
From: stephen_talbot@smtp2.irm.r9.fws.gov
Dr. Janos Podani, Department of Plant Taxonomy and Ecology, L.
Eotvos University, Budapest, Hungary will conduct a special
three-day multivariate analysis workshop in Anchorage, Alaska,
29-31 May 1998. The course "Exploration of Multivariate Data
Structures in Biology: How to Use the SYN-TAX package on the Mac
or PC" will combine morning lectures with afternoon hands-on
application to teach the basic concepts and advanced features of
the updated SYN-TAX 5.1 computing package. Participants are
encouraged to bring their own data sets.
Topics covered will be: (1) Classification. Hierarchical, non-
hierarchical, and fuzzy approaches; (2) Ordination. Metric and
non-metric multidimensional scaling. Principal components
analysis; (3) Evaluation of classifications and ordinations.
Comparisons, consensus, meta-analysis, and Monte Carlo tests;
(4) Character ranking. Rearrangement of distance and data
matrices to elucidate diagonal or block structures; and (5)
Pattern analysis of species assemblages using digitized field
data. The workshop will be held at Alaska Pacific University and
will be limited to 20 participants.
Complete information and registration forms are available from
the organizer (stephen_talbot@fws.gov; Stephen Talbot, U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service, 1011 East Tudor Road, Anchorage, Alaska
99503 USA; fax: (907) 786-3976; phone: (907) 786-3381)). Further
information concerning the SYN-TAX package may be found on the
Web homepage (http://ramet.elte.hu/~podani).
FACTOR FOUR - ECONOMICAL PRESCRIPTION FOR SUSTAINABLE GROWTH
From: Ingolf.Kuehn@ruhr-uni-bochum.de
Almost 25 years after the Club of Rome published their probably
most famous report "Limits to growth", E. U. von Weizsaecker, A.
B. Lovins & L. H. Lovins published a new report to the Club of
Rome called "Factor Four." The first author is president of the
Wuppertal Institute for climate and environmental research, a
highly reputed independent foundation in Germany. The two others
are head of the Rocky Mountain Institute in Colorado and
proposed most of the practical examples, some of which are
realized in their Institute's building.
As the subtitle implies, the aim of the study is to show that it
is possible to double global wealth by halving resource use. The
book starts with 20 examples where energy productivity, 20
examples where material productivity and ten examples where
transport productivity is quadrupled. Among those examples are
low fuel consuming cars, low energy houses, energy efficient
refrigerators, energy efficient produced beef and tomatoes,
methods of irrigation, use of material efficient components or
others of advanced, but usually already existing technologies.
The way to achieve this is described in the following chapters:
authentic prices (that regard the real cost of a product, i.e.
including environmental costs), start with most cost efficient
things first, invest in efficiency whenever it is cheaper than
exploitation, create markets for conserved resources, "green
taxes" with "feebates" for inefficient structures and rebates to
reward savers. One main idea to achieve this is to make saved
resources ("nega"-resources like negawatts, negalitres,
negakilometres etc.) cheaper than wasted resources.
The final chapters deal with new aspects of what to recognize
under "civilization progress". A novel definition of "wealth" is
presented and ways of restructuring our global economies are
discussed.
Many of the ideas presented are startling and sensible, though
not as comprehensive as the book pretends to be (e.g. solutions
for the "big" industries are lacking). The authors provide means
to change the economies but remain within free markets. But this
is also one of the main reasons of critique, as the discussions
in Germany following the release of the book showed, expressing
that the current problems could not be solved by the means that
caused them. On the other hand one may argue that only the means
that caused a problem are able to solve them. However, up to
now, there was no other system that remained as major means of
economy (nor were some others given the chance to be proven).
Nevertheless, it takes time, power and the will of the people
who elect their governments to convert not only the local but
time by time even the global economies. And especially now, as
the summit in Kyoto showed a few weeks ago, the will of acting
for a sustainable future and a climate friendly industry, is not
very strong in European countries and even less in the USA (just
talking of the countries with the major resource use). This
leads to another important point: It is feared that the ideas of
this book could be used to quadruple the wealth of the in-
dustrialized countries and neglect developing countries. Al-
though this contrasts the authors intentions as could be read in
the final chapters.
von Weizsaecker, E. U., A. B. Lovins & L. H. Lovins 1995. Faktor
vier. Doppleter Wohlstand - halbierter Verbrauch.
Droemer/Knaur, Muenchen.
von Weizsaecker, E., A.B. Lovins & L. H. Lovins. 1997. Factor
Four - Halving Resource Use". ErthScan, London. (Published
for English-speaking countries except for North-America)
Lovins, A. B., L. H. Lovins & P. Hawken: Natural Capitalism.
Hyperion. In press. (Rewritten edition for the North-American
audience)
FACTOR FOUR - POST SCRIPTUM
From: Adolf Ceska <aceska@victoria.tc.ca>
I first came across "Factor Four" in excerpts from a Czech
newspaper posted on a web site. This book is a bestseller in
Europe and it has been translated to Czech, Italian, Japanese,
Korean, Spanish and Swedish. English translation has been well
received in Great Britain and Australia, but it has not been
distributed in North America. I asked Ingolf Kuehn to write me
this short overview of the original "Faktor vier" for BEN.
Meanwhile I dug deeper to find more about the book, and yes, you
can get it in North America. It is available directly through
Rocky Mtn Institute for US$35.00, including shipping. You can
order RMI publications by phoning (970) 927-3851 or faxing
(970) 927-3420 your Visa or MasterCard number. Or you can send a
check to RMI, 1739 Snowmass Creek Road - Snowmass, CO 81654.
I greatly recommend you visit the Rocky Mtn Institute's web site
http://www.rmi.org
I also got the following information from the publisher of an
English edition, Earthscan Co., London:
"Factor Four was first published in German and we pub-
lished a translated edition (although Amory Lovins wrote
much of the material so it was straightforward to trans-
late back). The authors kept the sales rights for North
America because Amory and Hunter Lovins wanted to write,
with Paul Hawken, an edition which was more orientated to
North America ... to be called Natural Capitalism."
"We will also be publishing that book outside North
America but it is unlikely to be ready before the end of
this year, if not early next. In the meantime we can
actually sell copies of Factor Four to you from the UK. If
you want a copy we charge 15.99 sterling plus 30% airmail
postage. Just email or fax your credit card details with a
delivery address."
Address: Earthscan Publications Ltd., 120 Pentonville Rd.,
London, N1 9JN - e-mail: earthinfo@earthscan.co.uk, web site:
//www.earthscan.co.uk
I bought the book (from RMI) few days ago. The book is very well
produced and it is exciting and stimulating reading.
NEW BOOK: PLANTS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
From: Adolf Ceska <aceska@victoria.tc.ca>
Qian, H. & K. Klinka. 1998. Plants of British Columbia:
Scientific and common names of vascular plants, bryophytes,
and lichens. UBC Press, Vancouver. xiv + 534 p.
ISBN 0-7748-0652-4 [hard cover] Price: CDN$135.00
Ordering information:
UBC Press, University of British Columbia
6344 Memorial Road, Vancouver, B.C. Canada V6T 1Z2
Phone: 604-822-5959 Fax: 800-668-0821
E-mail: orders@ubcpress.ubc.ca
http://www.ubcpress.ubc.ca
BEN readers already know that I don't like hard copies of check-
lists. They are usually obsolete the minute they are printed and
they cannot be updated easily. Although I criticized Kartesz
(1994) in BEN # 73 for being published in a hard copy version,
this book is now my favourite reference. I use it whenever I
need to find the correct spelling or correct authority of scien-
tific names of vascular plants. In my discussion of the useful-
ness of Kartesz' list I argued that the list should have been
put on a web site and periodically updated. Since then the
Kartesz list has been made available on the following web site:
http://plants.usda.gov/plants/plntmenu.html
and a new, completely revised version is about to be released as
an electronic file (see "Digital floristic synthesis ..."
below).
According to the authors, "Plants of British Columbia" should
"provide a complete, up-to-date, and synonymized checklist of
all known vascular plants, bryophytes, and lichens found in
British Columbia, Canada." In my opinion, however, the book
falls short of this target.
In the section on vascular plants, the authors followed Kartesz
(1994) even to the point of including many of the same errors
and mistakes found in Kartesz. For instance, Carex enanderi is
attributed to Holm (instead of Hulten) both in Kartesz and
Plants of British Columbia, Isolepis setaceus (should be
setacea) has a wrong gender in both publications. Qian & Klinka
included all synonyms listed in Kartesz, even those that have
never been applied to the British Columbian plants, and the list
is cluttered with useless names (every synonym is listed in this
book three times). For example, Myriophyllum magdalenense Fern.
was described and known only from the Magdalen Islands in the
Gulf of St. Lawrence in Quebec, and we do not have to take it
into account in British Columbia. Myriophyllum verticillatum
var. cheneyi Fassett is known only from six collections from
eastern U.S. Why list this synonym for British Columbia?
Utricularia biflora has been be treated as a synonym of
Utricularia gibba (in Kartesz and Plants of British Columbia) or
as a distinct species. Even if it's considered as a form of U.
gibba, we don't have it in British Columbia.
Kartesz' list was compiled with help of many experts. Some
experts had little experience with the flora of western North
America and their taxonomic conclusions are either wrong or at
least questionable. I am not convinced that Vaccinium alaskense
is conspecific with V. ovalifolium. I was surprised to see that
Qian and Klinka did treat V. alaskense as conspecific with V.
ovalifolium when they accepted V. alaskense in their recent
paper on forest vegetation. There are several other species
groups (e.g., Poa secunda complex) where it would have been more
useful not to follow Kartesz' taxonomy.
Although Dr. W.B. Schofield helped authors with the bryophyte
list, their bryophyte list is based on a rather old version
published in Schofield (1992). The lichen list in the Plants of
British Columbia seems more recent. I traced it to the list of
lichens in Meidinger, D. et al. (1997) where the list of lichens
was based on the unpublished 1996 Catalogue of British Columbia
by Goward, Ahti, Brodo & Miege. However, some species excluded
in Goward et. al. (1994) were included in Qian & Klinka's lichen
list.
In their nomenclature the authors claimed to follow the older
"Berlin Code" of botanical nomenclature. In fact, they actually
followed the newer "Tokyo Code" especially in citations of
authorities of vascular plants and lichens (in the bryophytes
the authors still used the "in" connector according to the
Berlin Code and earlier codes, cf. BEN # 103 "In is out").
The book is "based on an extensive review of literature." Unfor-
tunately, the authors listed only a few of their sources. The
authors ignored Hickman (1993), which is an important landmark
in taxonomy of vascular plants of California and which brought
numerous changes to the nomenclature of those plants that extend
from California to British Columbia (e.g., in Hickman, Bois-
duvalia is treated within the genus Epilobium - the new names
should have been mentioned at least as synonyms, if authors
disagreed with this change).
The book is structured much like Kartesz (1994). In part 1,
vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens are first listed by
families. The second part lists all the names again and gives a
valid name to each synonym. Common names are given when avail-
able and the list of common names and their scientific equiv-
alents is attached. The authors indicated introduced species. I
do not agree with authors in calling Myriophyllum verticillatum
or Melampyrum lineare introduced species. Conversely, species
such as Campylopus introflexus, Hieracium lachenalii, and Typha
angustifolia should have been listed as introduced but were not.
In defense of the authors, I must say that in spite of British
Columbia's short history, it is often difficult to decide which
species are native and which are introduced. I have to confess
that when in doubt I check Hickman (1993).
The Appendix with 1,090 "Excluded names" is the Achilles heel of
the book. Beside the plants that have been erroneously reported
in British Columbia, there are many names that can be considered
misapplied synonyms (e.g., Eleocharis ovata auct. = E. obtusa),
and names that have been shunned in recent taxonomical treat-
ments (e.g., Agrostis thurberiana). The "Excluded names" also
contain many species that do actually occur in British Columbia.
Few examples: Ammania concinna (=A. robusta), Carex haydenii,
Carex torreyana, Cyperus erythrorhizos, Floerkea proser-
pinacoides, Fraxinus latifolia, Heteranthera dubia, Microseris
lindleyi, Scirpus cyperinus, etc. Many of these excluded species
could have been included had the authors visited the UBC her-
barium and the herbarium of the Royal British Columbia Museum.
Actually, these are the very places where the authors should
have spent some time before they started to work on their book.
The UBC Press did their best to produce this publication, al-
though the price is far too high.
Cited references:
Goward, T., B. McCune, & D. Meidinger. 1994. The lichens of
British Columbia: Illustrated keys. Part 1, Foliose and
squamulose species. Special Report Series No. 8, B.C. Minis-
try of Forests, Victoria, B.C.
Hickman, J.C. [ed.] 1993. The Jepson manual: Higher plants of
California. UC Press, Berkeley.
Kartesz, J.T. 1994. A synonymized checklist of the vascular
flora of the United States, Canada and Greenland. - Second
edition. Volume I: Checklist, 622 p.; Volume II: Thesaurus,
816 p. - Timber Press, Portland, Oregon.
Meidinger, D., H. Qian, G. Britton, T. Lee, & W. MacKenzie.
1997. British Columbia plant species codes and selected
attributes. URL: ftp.hre.for.gov.bc.ca/pub/provspp - file
BCVEG_EX.
Schofield, W.B. 1992. Some common mosses of British Columbia.
Second edition. Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria.
DIGITAL FLORISTIC SYNTHESIS OF NORTH AMERICA
From: http://www.ledlie.com/ [abbreviated]
From the laboratory of the Biota of North America Program of the
North Carolina Botanical Garden, in collaboration with the
Jepson Herbarium of the University of California at Berkeley,
comes the most comprehensive floristic synthesis ever assembled
for the North American vascular flora. The work builds upon Dr.
John T. Kartesz's 1994 Timber Press publication A Synonymized
Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Canada,
and Greenland, and it includes a complete revision of all of the
1994 nomenclature of the Synonymized Checklist, and links nearly
500,000 records of plant distributions, at state or equivalent
levels, to each accepted name.
Four individual digital products are described below, which will
be available on 3.5 inch diskettes, for use on IBM-compatible
systems running either Windows 95 or 3.1.
LEXICON. Product # 1.. The nomenclature and taxonomy of the
digital Lexicon follow Dr. John Kartesz's 1994, 2-volume
Synonymized Checklist and the PLANTS database of the National
Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), plus revisions. Specific
summaries of common names, in addition to accepted scientific
names and/or synonymized checklists, for any plant or plant
group, can be easily displayed and printed. The Lexicon can be
used to transfer scientific names directly to an open Microsoft
Word or WordPerfect document by simply clicking on the name.
Price per unit-US$99.00
FLORISTIC ATLAS. Product #2. For each of the more than 30,000
accepted taxa, the Floristic Atlas displays a state level dis-
tribution map of each, allowing the maps to be printed in
publication-quality format (in black and white, or color), or
saved as Windows bitmap images, by a simple mouse-click. Price
per unit-US$295.00.
BIOLOGICAL ATTRIBUTES. Product # 3. As a third product, a fully-
populated summary of 45 biological attributes, which includes
morphological and other specialized data, is also available for
each accepted taxon. These biological attributes are viewed to
be the most botanically useful or interesting to a broad
audience, and those considered to have national or international
importance, regarding rarity, nativity, weediness, insectivory,
habit (tree, shrub, vine, etc.), habitat, trophic levels, dura-
tion, medicinal value, forage and range values, toxicity, etc.
Price per unit-US$195.00
TAXONOMIC TOOLBOX. Product # 4. The fourth product, referred to
as the Taxonomic Toolbox, pools data from the previous three
products into a unified system and offers combined capabilities,
including the boolean operations found in both products 2 and 3.
The price is 16% less than if purchased individually. Price per
unit-US$495.00
Patricia Ledlie Bookseller, Inc.
One Bean Road, P.O. Box 90, Buckfield, ME 04220
Phone: 1-800-791-1028 Fax: 1-207-336-2778
E-mail: ledlie@ledlie.com
Web page: http://www.ledlie.com/
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Submissions, subscriptions, etc.: aceska@victoria.tc.ca
BEN is archived at http://www.ou.edu/cas/botany-micro/ben/
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