nature

"The comprises the most biodiverse region in the world, but, despite being highly threatened by human-induced s, little is known about how those changes influence the remaining forest’s extent and configuration in Brazil’s arc of . We analysed the spatial and temporal dynamics and the configuration of forest cover in Brazil’s state of over 34 years. We calculated seven landscape metrics based on freely available satellite imagery to understand the habitat transformations. Overall, natural vegetation cover declined from 90.9% to 62.7% between 1986 and 2020, and fragmentation greatly increased, generating 78,000 forest fragments and 100,000 fragments of ‘natural vegetation’, which also includes forest."

"In the 1920s about 60 percent of Haiti still had forest cover. In the 1980s it was estimated that between 1 and 4 percent of Haiti still had forest cover."

"Forests clean the air, filter water, control and support biodiversity (Acharya et al., 2019; Aznar-Sánchez et al., 2018). In addition, many forests are spiritual and cultural sites, enriching the lives of people in surrounding communities and offering opportunities for aesthetic enjoyment, relaxation and recreation (Brauman et al., 2020). Forests also play a significant role in influencing localised temperatures and rainfall (Leite-Filho et al., 2021; Schwaab et al., 2021). In 2020, total forest carbon stocks were estimated to be 662 million s, averaging 163 t per (, 2020). Between 1990 and 2020, global forest carbon stocks declined; however, forest carbon stocks per hectare increased owing to improved (FAO, 2020). Human activities, including deforestation and unsustainable practices, in particular, have greatly impacted forest ecosystems (Lambin and Meyfroidt, 2010). Between 1990 and 2020, 420 million hectares of forest were lost to other land uses. Despite a slowing deforestation rate, forests continued to decline at an annual rate of 0.25 % between 2015 and 2020 (FAO, 2020). Halting deforestation and forest degradation is crucial for addressing climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation, desertification, and threats to human health (Rametsteiner et al., 2022). Forests also play a crucial role in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), mitigating climate change, and enhancing human well-being and economic prosperity (Rametsteiner et al., 2022). Forest governance, therefore, includes the restoration of degraded forests, expanding forest cover, upgrading forest quality, increasing sustainable use and building green value chains to help meet future demands for materials and ecosystem services and to support greener, circular economies."

"Many tropical soils are poor in inorganic nutrients and rely on the recycling of nutrients from soil organic matter to maintain fertility. In undisturbed such nutrients are recycled via the ... ; , meanwhile, depends on the mineralization of organic nutrients from the plant remains ... or on (short-lived) inputs from ash ... . This dependence on organic nutrients in tropical soils has the result that tests of soil quality which only give isolated measures of inorganic nutrient status are unreliable ... , and that the effects of fertilization can be inconsistent because of leaching or fixation of inorganic nutrients. Here we attempt to quantify the role of organic matter in sustaining the fertility of soils from three different climate zones. We estimate rates of from ecological measurements and , and determine its relation to the and nutrient budgets. We find that agriculture without supplementary fertilization was economical for 65 years on temperate and for six years in a tropical semi-arid . An extremely nutrient-poor Amazonian soil showed no potential for agriculture beyond the three-year lifespan of the forest litter mat, once biological nutrient cycles were interrupted by slash-burning. These observations suggest that quantification of organic-matter cycling may provide an important guide to the agricultural potential of soils."

"Plants require at least 16 s for normal growth and for completion of their life cycle. Those used in the largest amounts, , and oxygen, are non-mineral elements supplied by air and water. The other 13 elements are taken up by plants only in mineral form from the soil or must be added as s. Plants need relatively large amounts of , , and . These nutrients are referred to as primary nutrients, and are the ones most frequently supplied to plants in fertilizers. The three secondary elements, , , and , are required in smaller amounts than the primary nutrients. Calcium and magnesium are usually supplied with liming materials, and sulfur with fertilizer materials. Contaminants in also supply 10 to 20 pounds of nitrogen and sulfur per acre each year, depending on local air quality. The micronutrients consist of seven essential elements: , , , iron, , , and . These elements occur in very small amounts in both soils and plants, but their role is equally as important as the primary or secondary nutrients. A deficiency of one or more of the micronutrients can lead to severe depression in growth, yield, and crop quality. Some soils do not contain sufficient amounts of these nutrients to meet the plant's requirements for rapid growth and good production. In such cases, supplemental micronutrient applications in the form of commercial fertilizers or must be made."

"Attention is again called to the fact that the is the original source of 98½% per cent of the materials found in the green plant; the carbohydrates, fats and being composed of elements supplied in the form of water and gas. These substances are furnished free of cost in humid climates, the supply being practically beyond control, and their use by the plant results in no impoverishment of the land. The subject of practical importance to the farmer is the supply of the other 1½% per cent of the plant, consisting of nitrogen and the ash elements which are derived directly from the solid particles of the soil. It has been shown that seven of these elements are essential to plant growth. Experience has proved that only three of these elements (i.e. , and ) are likely to become exhausted, or, in other words, that nothing is gained by adding to the soil any of the other elements of . This is due to the fact that the plant uses nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash in rather larger quantities than the other elements, and that they exist in smaller quantities in the ground, and not because they are any more essential to vegetation. Occasionally soils are found that are actually deficient in , but in most cases lime is present in sufficient abundance for the growth of the plant."

"Dark skies cannot be overlooked in the environmental movement—or in any effort to create a better world for future generations. There is a unique unity that comes from living under one dark sky."

"The yellow rose petals—one by one—gone into roaring waterfalls"

"Thy neck is as a tower of ivory."

"The king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the best gold."

"His belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires."

"All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad."

"And I will smite the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, saith the LORD."

"Like two wands of ivory Tipp’d with gold for awful kings."

"As when some stately trappings are decreed To grace a monarch on his bounding steed, A nymph in Caria or Mæonia bred, Stains the pure ivory with a lively red; With equal lustre various colours vie, The shining whiteness, and the Tyrian dye: So great Atrides! show’d thy sacred blood, As down thy snowy thigh distill’d the streaming flood."

"And what’s a life? The flourishing array Of the proud summer-meadow, which to-day Wears her green plush, and is to-morrow hay."

"Ye have been fresh and green, Ye have been fill’d with flowers, And ye the walks have been Where maids have spent their hours.You have beheld how they With wicker arks did come To kiss and bear away The richer cowslips home.You’ve heard them sweetly sing, And seen them in a round: Each virgin like a spring, With honeysuckles crown’d.But now we see none here Whose silv’ry feet did tread And with dishevell’d hair Adorn’d this smoother mead.Like unthrifts, having spent Your stock and needy grown, You’re left here to lament Your poor estates, alone."

"The has outright destroyed s, and where it did not, it altered them drastically to the detriment of wildlife and often people themselves. Over the last century, the more the population grew, the more es flowed into the , and the greater the impact on wildlife were, all of which required specific temperature ranges other limited climatic conditions. And the more people there are, the more cities, roads, farm fields, fences, and other barriers there are preventing wildlife from living in or moving to areas of more favorable temperature or humidity in a rapidly changing climate."

"The had already disappeared from English rivers by the , and the wolf had almost gone; one was killed in in 1212, and there are a few scattered mentions from the remainder of the century; a few may have continued on the until the end of the fourteenth century. The rabbit was first introduced into England at the beginning of the twelfth century, and by the 1160s was probably familiar over much of the country. The raucous cough of that bird beloved of poachers, the , seems to have part of the English woodlands' sound-scene from about the same time: the species was certainly present by 1170."

"A flock of a dozen s spends the year in my woods. In winter, when we are harvesting diseased or dead trees for our fuel wood, the ring of the axe is dinner gong fro the chickadee tribe. ... But for diseases and insect pests, there would likely be no food in the trees, and hence no chickadees to add cheer to my woods in winter. Many other kinds of wildlife depend on tree diseases. My s chisel living plants, to extract fat grubs from the diseased heartwood. My s find surcease from s and s in the hollow heart of an old ; but for this diseased tree their sundown serenade would probably be silenced. My s nest in hollow trees; every June brings its broad of downy ducklings to my woodland slough. All squirrels depend, for permanent dens, on a delicately balanced equilibrium between a rotting cavity and the scar tissue with which the tree attempts to close the wound. The squirrels referee the contest by gnawing out the scar tissue when it begins unduly to shrink the amplitude of their front door."

"In many of the countries of West and Central Africa, the people love "". In the old days a hunter would shoot or trap animals just to feed his own family, perhaps his village. But now he kills as many as many as he can, cuts them up, dries of smokes the meat, and then sends it on a truck to the towns. It is not legal to hunt chimpanzees; they are endangered. But how does anyone know what the animal was when it has been cut into small pieces? Thousands of animals are killed for the bushmeat trade each year. The only hope for the wild animal populations in these countries is that, because animals are disappearing fast, they are harder to find and kill. The hunters complain that they have to travel farther and farther into the forest to catch anything at all. And so, if programs for breeding s can be introduced, at lest some of the remaining wildlife will have a chance."

"All it takes is one little mistake."

"Life is happening so fast up here; every year I have to get all that meat, every year I have to get all that wood - I can't be ahead of the game that much, and that's just the way it is."

"You wake up, and it's 50 below and it might only warm up to 25 below, this is the beginning of the dark days of Winter."

"I have to push hard to get my food, and that's not what I expected when I first came out here!"

"Whenever the Muharram… chances to coincide with Hindu festivals... serious riots have occurred as the processions meet in front of a mosque or Hindu temple, or when an attempt is made to cut the branches of some sacred fig-tree which impedes the passage of the cenotaphs...."

"[Suraj Mal concluded a peace treaty with the Mir Bakshi Salabat Jang in 1750, whereby latter promised:] ( a ) not to cut down pipal trees nor hinder the worship of that tree ; ( b ) not to offer any insult or injury to Hindu temples."

"The king... breaks the temples and uproots tulsi plants… The bathing in Ganga is prohibited and hundreds of sacred asvattha and jack trees have been cut down."

""Indian government funded in part the work of ISKCON (Hare Krishna) in re-forestation of Vrindavan. Department of environment is supporting temples to maintain sacred groves. Ecological aspects of Sanatana dharma have been included in the school text books of at least one state, UP." ... Ms. Nanda has described how environmentalism in India is often clothed in Hindu language and symbolism. Thus, in trying to protect trees, women tie rakhis, the auspicious red threads which sisters tie around their brothers' wrists on the Hindu festival of Raksha Bandhan, around these trees."

"All the people of India used to prostrate themselves before stones, idols, trees, animals, cows and cow-dung."

"The trees were cut with axes and felled, notwithstanding their groans; and the Hindus, who worship trees, could not at that time come to the rescue of their idols, so that every cursed tree which was in that capital of idolatry was cut down to the roots…"

"A person is honored in Vaikuntha for as many thousand years as the days he resides in a house where tulasi is grown. And if one properly grows bilva, which pleases Lord Siva, in his family, the goddess of riches resides permanently passes on to the sons and grandsons He who plants even a single asvattha, wherever it may be, as per the prescribed mode, goes to the abode of Hari. He who has planted dhatri has performed several sacrifices. He has donated the earth. He would be considered a celebate forever. He who plant a couple of banyan trees as per the prescribed mode would go to the abode of Siva and many heavenly nymphs will attend upon him. After planting neem trees a person well-versed in dharma attains the abode of Sun. Indeed! He resides there for a long period. By planting four plaksa trees a person doubtlessly obtains the fruits of Rajasuya sacrifice. He who plants five or six mango trees attains the abode of Garuda and lives happily forever like gods. One should plant seven palasa trees or even one. One attains the abode of Brahma and enjoys the company of gods by doing so. He who himself plants eight udumbara trees or even prompts someone to plant them, rejoices in the lunar world He who has planted madhuka has propitiated Parvati, has become free from diseases, and has worshipped all deities. If one plants ksirini, dadimi, rambha, priyala, and panasa, one experiences no affliction for seven births. He who has knowingly or unknowingly planted ambu is respected as a recluse even while staying in the house. By planting all kinds of other trees, useful for fruits and flowers, a person gets a reward of thousand cows adorned with jewels. By planting one asvattha, one picumanda, one nyagrodha, ten tamarind trees, the group of three, viz., kapittha, bilva, and amalaka, and five mango trees, one never visits hell."

"Do not the Hindus all over the country worship the tree? Tulasi, bilva, ashwattha are all sacred to the Hindu."

"I hope no such planet exists, but consider one where slow, painful death from parasitism is universal. How would we talk about nature on such a planet? What kind of book would Thoreau have written there?"

"Nearly all birds build nests of some kind in which to cradle their eggs and young. The cow-bird and cuckoo (European), however, are exceptions. These birds have the rather human practice of turning their cares and labours over to somebody else. They are loafers and parasites. They lay their eggs secretly in the nests of other birds, where their eggs are hatched and their young cared for by an alien mother. I have seen a mother song-sparrow hustling about among the shrubs and grasses for an hour at a time almost, gathering food for a young cow-bird nearly twice as big as she was, while her foundling sat phlegmatically at the foot of a tree chirping and fluttering its wings, and acting as a thankless and apparently bottomless receptacle for the morsel after morsel laboriously harvested for it by its tireless little foster-mother."

"Some species of carpenter ants infected with metacercariae of the fluke Brachylecithutn mosquensis, are more obese than noninfected ants and, unlike the latter, they do not conceal themselves but crawl on exposed surfaces where they are easily found by birds that are the next hosts of the fluke. This behaviour seems to be a remarkable example of an animal that sacrifices its life for its parasites. The 'sacrifice', of course, is induced by the parasite."

"The facts obtained in this study may possibly be sufficient proof of the causal relationship, that only the most sceptical can raise the objection that the discovered microorganism is not the cause but only an accompaniment of the disease [...] It is necessary to obtain a perfect proof to satisfy oneself that the parasite and the disease are [...] actually causally related, and that the parasite is the [...] direct cause of the disease. This can only be done by completely separating the parasite from the diseased organism [and] introducing the isolated parasite into healthy organisms and induce the disease anew with all its characteristic symptoms and properties."

"In this strange and apparently cruel operation one circumstance is truly remarkable. The larva of the Ichneumon, though every day, perhaps for months, it gnaws the inside of the caterpillar, and though at last it has devoured almost every part of it except the skin and intestines, carefully all this time it avoids injuring the vital organs, as if aware that its own existence depends on that of the insect upon which it preys!"

"Nowhere is it more true that "prevention is better than cure," than in the case of Parasitic Diseases."

"The belief is growing on me that the disease is communicated by the bite of the mosquito [...] She always injects a small quantity of fluid with her bite—what if the parasites get into the system in this manner."

"Whoever looks at the insect world, at flies, aphides, gnats and innumerable parasites, and even at the infant mammals, must have remarked the extreme content they take in suction, which constitutes the main business of their life. If we go into a library or newsroom, we see the same function on a higher plane, performed with like ardor, with equal impatience of interruption, indicating the sweetness of the act. In the highest civilization the book is still the highest delight."

"Let me repeat that these parasitic insects comprise ten percent of all known animal species. How can this be understood? Certainly we give our infants the wrong idea about their fellow creatures in the world. Teddy bears should come with tiny stuffed bearlice; ten percent of all baby bibs and rattles sold should be adorned with colorful blowflies, maggots, and screw-worms. What kind of devil’s tithe do we pay? What percentage of the world’s species that are not insects are parasitic? Could it be, counting bacteria and viruses, that we live in a world in which half the creatures are running from—or limping from—the other half?"

"To choose a rough example, think of a thorn which has stuck in a finger and produces an inflammation and suppuration. Should the thorn be discharged with the pus, then the finger of another individual may be pricked with it, and the disease may be produced a second time. In this case it would not be the disease, not even its product, that would be transmitted by the thorn, but rather the stimulus which engendered it. Now supposing that the thorn is capable of multiplying in the sick body, or that every smallest part may again become a thorn, then one would be able to excite the same disease, inflammation and suppuration, in other individuals by transmitting any of its smallest parts. The disease is not the parasite but the thorn. Diseases resemble one another, because their causes resemble each other. The contagion in our sense is therefore not the germ or seed of the disease, but rather the cause of the disease. For example, the egg of a taenia is not the product of a worm disease even though the worm disease may have been the cause, which first gave rise to the taenia in the intestinal contents—nor of the individual afflicted with the worm disease, but rather of the parasitic body, which, no matter how it may have come into the world at first, now reproduces itself by means of eggs, and produces the symptoms of the worm disease, at least in part. It is not the seed of the disease; the latter multiplies in the sick organism, and is again excreted at the end of the disease."

"The wing'd Ichneumon for her embryon young Gores with sharp horn the caterpillar throng. The cruel larva mines its silky course, And tears the vitals of its fostering nurse."

"There is an extremely thin line of demarcation between the ferment and the parasite."

"[A] major difficulty in the parasite's life is the return to water. It is, therefore, of particular interest that the parasite appears to affect the behaviour of its hosts, and 'encourages' it to return to water. The mechanism by which this is achieved is obscure, but there are sufficient isolated reports to certify that the parasite does influence its hosts, and often suicidally for the host [...] One of the more dramatic reports describes an infected bee flying over a pool and, when about six feet over it, diving straight into the water. Immediately on impact the gordian worm burst out and swam into the water, the maimed bee being left to die."

"I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidæ with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars, or that a cat should play with mice."

"What keeps snails and flukes apart in evolution is their divergent future interests, and this is because they do not share reproductive propagules. What keeps host genes together with host genes — and parasite genes together with parasite genes - is that they do share future interests. Parasites, then, have led us to the solution to the paradox of the organism. The genes in an organism share desiderata lists. And this is simply because they submit to the same meiotic lottery and possess the same stochastic gametic destiny."

"Fell Oestrus buries in her rapid course Her countless brood in stag, or bull, or horse; Whose hungry larva eats its living way, Hatch'd by the warmth, and issues into day."

"It is only within the present epoch, that physiology and chemistry have reached the point at which they could offer a scientific foundation to agriculture; and it is only within the present epoch, that zoology and physiology have yielded any very great aid to pathology and hygiene. But within that time, they have already rendered highly important services by the exploration of the phenomena of parasitism. Not only have the history of the animal parasites, such as the tapeworms and the trichina, which infest men and animals, with deadly results, been cleared up by means of experimental investigations [...] but the terrible agency of the parasitic fungi and of the infinitesimally minute microbes, which work far greater havoc among plants and animals, has been brought to light."