JOURNAL OF TAXONOMY AND BIOSISTEMATICS
Year:2012 | Volume:4 | Issue:11|Papers Count:8

The Barn owl, Tyto alba (Scopoli, 1769), occurs worldwide and shows a considerable amount of morphological and geographical variations, leading to the recognition of many subspecies throughout the world. Yet, no comprehensive study has not been done on this species. Data from mitochondrial gene (16S Ribosomal RNA (16S)) with 569 bp length were analyzed for 41 individuals around the world. Maximum likelihood (ML), maximum parsimony (MP) and Bayesian analysis showed two distinct clades including alba clad (old world) and furcata clad (new world). The amount of genetic variation within each of these clades ranged from 0.5-1.7 but variation between clades was 3.7. This data may suggest that Barn owls of the Old World may be a separate species from those of the New World.

The genus Typha L. (Typhaceae), comprising 12 species in Iran, among which two species are endemic flora of Iran. The main purpose of this study was to analyze anatomical characters of the members of the genus and also evaluating the systematical efficiency of these features. The leaf anatomy of the genus Typhaceae in Iran was studied by light microscopy and it was discussed as well. Differences of various anatomical characters between species were considered. The results obtained from this research work confirmes the usefulness of leaf anatomy characters for identification of the most of the species. Species were easily separated from each other by means of morphological and anatomical characters.In addition to providing a list of variable and constant species characters, tables showing the species distinguishing characters as well as anatomical photos of the species were presented.

A total of 58 accessions of Eremopoa persica and E. songarica belongigng to the family Poaceae and tribe Festuceae (Poacea) were morphologically studied. Three polidy levels diplo, triplo and tetraploid were counted from chromosome number counting of 7 accessions of the root tips as: 2n=14 and 21 for E. persica and 2n=28 for songarica. Based on the results of this study it could be suggested that the two Eremopoa species (E. persica and E. songarica) might to be considered as two varieties of E. persica.

In this study, the morphological and micro morphological characters in form-series of species Rosa canina were considered. In this species, it is difficult to find constant morphological features due to its wide distribution and high potential for hybridization with other species of this genus. Therefore, 30 morphological and 31 micro morphological characters were studied.Regarding high variable of features specially four characters indumentum leaflet, pedicle, glandular leaflet and pedicle, this species was classified into 8 groups. Anatomical, micro morphological and statistical studies with SPSS and NTsysb softwares showed that these characters were valuable to separate these form-series from each other.

In this study, flora of the protected area of Manesht and Qalarang in Ilam province, was surveyed. The area was located in 46o 18' E to 46o 37' E and 33o 26' N to 33o 45' N. The method of plant study was classical method of taxonomic studies. Using different botanical references and different flora, collected plants were identified as families, genera and species, herbarium specimens are deposited in herbarium of Payame Noor University of Ilam.It was shown that there were 52 families, 156 genera and 231 plant species in this area. The largest family was Compositae with 18 genera and 29 species, and the largest genus was Astragalus (Fabaceae) with 11 species. According to Raunkiaer, life forms of the studied plants were categorized as: Hemicryptophytes (42%), Therophytes 32%, Cryptophytes 13%, Phanerophytes 9% and Chamaephytes 4%. High percentage of Irano-Touranian elements indicated that the area belonged to this phytochorion. This study also showed high species richness and palpable predominance of Hemicryptophytes which probably resulted from high elevation and cold climate encompassing the area. Also, high abundance of Throphytes species was probably due to high elevation and severe destruction of habitat, over-grazingand contiguity to the city of Ilam.

In this study, cladistic analysis of characteristics morphological dataset using 21 characters for 26 taxa, including 19 taxa of Ebenus, 2 taxa of Taverniera, 2 taxa of Onobrychis and 2 taxa of Hedysarumas in groups plus Alhagi persarum as an out group were chosen in phylogenetic analyses. Maximum parsimony approach as implemented in PAUP* with a heuristic search was employed. Fifty shortest trees with L=17.88 steps and a CI=0.709 and an RI=0.901 were generated. The analysis revealed that Ebenus was monophyletic. None of its multi-specific sections, Ebenidium and Euebenus, were monophyletic. E. cretica and E. stellata were basal most branches that followed by a clade consisting of the remaining species. Onobrychis and Hedysarum were strongly allied with Ebenus.

In order to collect and determine medicinal plants of Kermanshah province, at first a list of medicinal plants and their localities was prepared based on the floristic list of the Kermanshah province mentioned as medicinal plants in the related references. Then, stands of the mentioned medicinal plants were referred according to the topographic maps and the extracted localities and after collecting medicinal plant specimens, herbarium specimens were prepared based on the traditional taxonomic methods. For each collected plant specimen, habitat characteristics including locality, altitude (elevation above sea level) and the other ecological characteristics of each location were recorded. Furthermore, local names and usable parts were recorded for each species including their local usage. To reassure accordance of the collected specimens with the prepared list of the medicinal plants, their identification and determination were carried out by the present related references. Collected information about each medicinal plant species was recorded in the form attached to the related herbarium specimen. The life forms of the determined medicinal plants were determined based on the Raunkiaer method. Altogether 208 medicinal species belonging to 198 genera and 72 families were determined.

Bulking is the floation of sludge flocculent due to excessive growth of filamentous or non filamentous microorganisms in the process of wastewater treatment that can lead to further deterioration of treatment process and effluent quality. Nocardiaforms and Beggiatoa build-up are due to presence of excess oil component and sulfur in the system, respectively. Hence by identifying the main cause of bulking bacteria, we can recognize its formation and finding solutions to specific bulking control. This study was carried out to identify the main microorganisms responsible for the bulking at Isfahan oil refinery water recycling unite by using micro scopical methods and buried (or contact) slide technique. Buried slide is a useful technique to analyze environmental samples in which a microscope slide is embedded in an expected sample. The contact slide method might have a bias toward selective colonization by using specific thin agar cover on the slide. By microscopic studying of different slides, identification of filamentous bacteria was carried out based on morphological characteristics and their reaction to different staining. Dominant filamentous bacteria were identified as nocardioforms actinomycete and Nostocoida limicola. Nostocoida limicola belongs to the genetic category of the budding Planctomycete. For the first time, the budding formations of these bacteria were clearly seen in contact slides in this study. Furthermore some relationships were found between the dominance of these bacteria and the conditions of the wastewater treatment plant, which based on them, the methods to specific bulking control could be obtained.