Characterization of Mulberry Genetic Resources for Multiple Traits

Mulberry plants have wide range of variations in characters in view of its adaptability to cross pollination with no inter-specific reproduction barrier rendering it a heterozygous species. Every plant being different from the other in natural population, this great diversity makes it difficult to gather information and carry out studies on effect of different edaphic factors on the expression of genotypic characters for adjudging the variations. In lieu of this known diversity for posterity, the collection of mulberry genotypes from diverse genetic sources, their conservation, evaluation and consequent documentation is of prime importance. In the present study, 69 mulberry accessions were characterized for morphology, anatomy, and reproductive parameters. Evaluation for propagation, growth and yield characters were also carried out. Based on multiple trait analysis, 14 top performing accessions viz., MI-0879, MI-0882, MI-0908, MI-0931, MI-0907, MI-0940, MI-0881, MI-0941, MI0892, MI-0913, MI-0937, MI-0934, MI-0865, MI-0886 were identified. These accessions could serve as resources for further evaluation aimed at trait-specific crop improvement.

POST-CONSERVATION EVALUATION (PCE): FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF ADAPTIVE REUSE MUSEUMS IN GEORGE TOWN, MALAYSIA

Adaptive reuse of historic buildings has become a prominent trend in the scenario of built heritage conservation of Melaka and George Town, UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Malaysia. Such implementation however is questionable since there have been several dilemmas raised in relation to the local museum industry. Among them are stiff competition faced by museums as an attractive cultural product, not appealing to business funders, rarely favoured as a family holiday destination and being perceived as dull and old repositories by the younger generations. As adaptive reuse is known to revive the physical and functional facets of historic building which then contributes to its economic generation, this study attempts to understand the financial impact from such implementations. Post-conservation evaluation (PCE) focusing on financial performance was conducted on adaptive reuse museums in the Core Zone and Buffer Zone of George Town, involving Penang State Museum (PSM), Made in Penang Interactive Museum (MIPIM), Batik Painting Museum (BPM) and Dark Mansion-3D Glow in the Dark Museum (DM) which were shortlisted trough purposive sampling. Key informants’ survey was then carried by engaging key person identified to be resourceful and knowledgeable with the respective museums’ financial background and history. It is found that the adaptive reuse museums have yet to gain a stable return of investment, due to low-income generation from their ticketing sales in relation to higher operational and maintenance costs they require. By conducting PCE on the financial performance of adaptive reuse buildings that are of cultural and historical values, conservation stakeholders may be furnished with better information that aids better decisionmaking in the future.

Threatened amphibians sheltered under the big cat’s umbrella: a conservation evaluation of jaguars Panthera onca (Carnivora: Felidae) and endemic herpetofauna in Nuclear Central America

The umbrella species concept posits that protection of a single, wide-ranging species may confer protection to a large number of sympatric species. Due to their large home ranges, widespread distribution in the Mesoamerican Biodiversity Hotspot (MBH), and status as the focal species of numerous conservation initiatives, the jaguar Panthera onca is an ideal species to evaluate the umbrella strategy. After ground-truthing jaguar corridors from 2009 - 2016, we tested the umbrella value of jaguars for endemic herpetofauna (Amphibia, Reptilia) in Nuclear Central America (NCA), a ~ 370 000 km² sub-region of the MBH. NCA contains the greatest density of threatened reptiles in the Western Hemisphere and harbors extraordinary high diversity of amphibians, the most threatened class of vertebrate worldwide. Of the 304 regional endemics in NCA, the distributions of 187 (61.5 %) species of amphibians and reptiles overlapped ground-truthed jaguar range. The distributions of 14 reptiles, including a critically endangered Bothriechis spp. and two endangered Norops spp., occur exclusively within jaguar distribution. Similarly, the distributions of 19 amphibians, including four critically endangered Craugastor spp. and two critically endangered Plectrohyla spp. occur entirely within jaguar distribution. Our results indicate greater effectiveness of ground-truthed jaguar distribution than modeled and randomly selected networks in overlapping the distributions of endemic herpetofauna, especially threatened amphibians, in NCA. Substantiation of multi-taxa dependence on habitat in jaguar distribution would strengthen justification for wider application of the umbrella strategy beyond NCA and aid conservation planning in the MBH.