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Plant Ecology & Physiology | Soil Microbiology | Above/Belowground Linkages | Ecological Restoration | Environmental Stewardship
Q’eqchi’ Maya medicinal plant resources at the Itzamma Garden
Ongoing ethnobotanical investigations with the Q’eqchi Maya of southern Belize, Central America (C.A.), have identified an extensive collection of medicinal and culturally important plants still used in regular practice for primary healthcare by regional traditional healers. Typifying part of the Mayan cosmocentric worldview, these healers are very knowledgeable about local forest biodiversity and their botanic knowledge represents an ancient healing practice which is intact to this day (i.e., having a high usage-consensus). Based on our previous studies, this practice includes a high proportion of primary (old-growth) rainforest species originating especially from the surrounding Maya Mountains encompassing areas of high ecological integrity. This region is a part of the Mesoamerican biological corridor and identified as a world biodiversity hotspot for conservation recognizing associated ecospheres and ethnospheres as priorities for careful land management and social development. Hence, efforts toward long-term sustainable land-use and indigenous development are urgent priorities for this area in face of impending ecological fragmentation and environmental degradation associated with agricultural expansion and human settlement.
A crucial step in addressing the conservation of this cultural and biological diversity has been the documentation of Maya 'wild' medicinal plant resources in the Maya Mountains as well as the sophisticated traditional knowledge of the local ecosystems which was generated through millennia of shared learning within this context. Another inextricably intertwined step was devised by the Q’eqchi healers, themselves, who (in 1999) initiated an ex situ conservation of medicinal plant biodiversity facilitated by plant collections on remote expeditions over the past decade. The Itzamma[1] Garden and Medicinal Plant Project (Arnason et al. 2009) is a collaborative effort at public health promotion and agronomy for sustainable non-timber forest products supported by the Belize Indigenous Training Institute (Belize), the Q’eqchi Maya Traditional Healers Association (Belize), the University of Ottawa (Canada), Cleveland State University (USA), and the Universidad Nacional (Costa Rica). The project focuses on identifying, characterizing, and cultivating medicinal and (or) traditionally important plants used by the Q’eqchi Maya. The project is built on the premise that traditional botanic and medicinal knowledge could be continually utilized as a vehicle for primary healthcare and culturally appropriate development in the context of the conservation of culture and biodiversity.
[1] Itzamma meaning "place of Itzamnaaj" and "Itzamnaaj" being a principal pre-Columbian Maya deity who is the bringer of Itz or life essence and health/healing.
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Examining the paradox of the 'mycorrhizal-metal-hyperaccumulators'
This critical analysis identifies and attempts to resolve the paradox of combining hyperaccumulators and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF – and their plant symbionts) for the purpose of post-industrial bioremediation arising from the divergence of their respective ecological and evolutionary stress tolerance behaviours. The identification of a ‘dilemma of resource allocation’ associated with plant resources consumed in intrinsic (e.g., metabolic) vs. extrinsic (e.g., symbiotic) stress tolerance mechanisms could provide a suitable evolutionary reasoning for the apparent dichotomy existing between the hyperaccumulators and AMF-plant life-history strategies. Ultimately, it is considered that any efforts toward integrating such biotechnology innovations into bioremediation strategies (e.g., ‘mycorrhizal-metal-hyperaccumulators’) should first explicitly consider their inherent environmental and (or) evolutionary contexts to avoid misleading and possibly even unproductive outcomes prior to incorporating these attributes as potential technological solutions.
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Pot-Size Matters
Studies involving pot-grown plants represent an underpinning of comparative plant physiology. However, design parameters such as the size of the experimental microcosm (e.g., pot size) may confound the interpretation of results regardless of the intended experimental conditioning. Specific to the study of mycorrhiza—a mutualistic association between plant roots and soil fungi—we believe that the pot size and fungal inoculum distribution may inadvertently affect plant growth and symbiotic interaction. It can be hypothesized that pot size influences the dynamics of resource allocation and mycorrhizal symbiosis by potentially restricting the proliferation of roots and extraradical hyphae. Meanwhile, the distribution of fungal inoculum may also influence the frequency of interaction between roots and fungal propagules which then affects the level of root colonization and symbiotic activity. To test these notions, we conducted a factorial greenhouse study of “dwarf” sunflower and an arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungus to discern how the pot size and fungal inoculum distribution affect plant growth and root colonization. Given that the AM symbiosis is widely recognized for benefiting plants under various environmentally stressful conditions, we then conducted a follow-up experiment incorporating a water deficit treatment to investigate the effects of pot size on the dynamics of symbiotic association and stress tolerance. By identifying key design factors that influence plant growth and mycorrhizal association, it is our goal to improve upon the design of pot-growth experiments to facilitate a more effective comparison of findings between studies.
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