Forestry
Forestry is the science and craft of creating, using and repairing forests and associated resources for human and environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in natural stands; the science of forestry has elements that belong to the biological, social and managerial sciences. Modern forestry embraces a broad range of concerns, in what is known as multiple-use management, including the provision of timber, fuel wood, wildlife habitat, natural water quality management, recreation and community protection, aesthetically appealing landscapes, biodiversity management, watershed management, erosion control, preserving forests as "sinks" for atmospheric carbon dioxide. A practitioner of forestry is known as a forester. Other common terms are: a silviculturalist. Silviculture is narrower than forestry, being concerned only with forest plants, but is used synonymously with forestry. Forest ecosystems have come to be seen as the most important component of the biosphere, forestry has emerged as a vital applied science and technology.
Forestry is an important economic segment in various industrial countries. For example, in Germany, forests cover nearly a third of the land area, wood is the most important renewable resource, forestry supports more than a million jobs and about €181 billion of value to the German economy each year; the preindustrial age has been dubbed by Werner Sombart and others as the'wooden age', as timber and firewood were the basic resources for energy and housing. The development of modern forestry is connected with the rise of capitalism, economy as a science and varying notions of land use and property. Roman Latifundiae, large agricultural estates, were quite successful in maintaining the large supply of wood, necessary for the Roman Empire. Large deforestations came with after the decline of the Romans; however in the 5th century, monks in the Byzantine Romagna on the Adriatic coast, were able to establish stone pine plantations to provide fuelwood and food. This was the beginning of the massive forest mentioned by Dante Alighieri in his 1308 poem Divine Comedy.
Similar sustainable formal forestry practices were developed by the Visigoths in the 7th century when, faced with the ever-increasing shortage of wood, they instituted a code concerned with the preservation of oak and pine forests. The use and management of many forest resources has a long history in China as well, dating back to the Han dynasty and taking place under the landowning gentry. A similar approach was used in Japan, it was later written about by the Ming dynasty Chinese scholar Xu Guangqi. In Europe, land usage rights in medieval and early modern times allowed different users to access forests and pastures. Plant litter and resin extraction were important, as pitch was essential for the caulking of ships and hunting rights and building, timber gathering in wood pastures, for grazing animals in forests; the notion of "commons" refers to the underlying traditional legal term of common land. The idea of enclosed private property came about during modern times. However, most hunting rights were retained by members of the nobility which preserved the right of the nobility to access and use common land for recreation, like fox hunting.
Systematic management of forests for a sustainable yield of timber began in Portugal in the 13th century when Afonso III of Portugal planted the Pinhal do Rei near Leiria to prevent coastal erosion and soil degradation, as a sustainable source for timber used in naval construction. His successor Dom Dinis continued the forest exists still today. Forest management flourished in the German states in the 14th century, e.g. in Nuremberg, in 16th-century Japan. A forest was divided into specific sections and mapped; as timber rafting allowed for connecting large continental forests, as in south western Germany, via Main, Neckar and Rhine with the coastal cities and states, early modern forestry and remote trading were connected. Large firs in the black forest were called "Holländer ``. Large timber rafts on the Rhine were 200 to 400m in length, 40m in width and consisted of several thousand logs; the crew consisted of 400 to 500 men, including shelter, bakeries and livestock stables. Timber rafting infrastructure allowed for large interconnected networks all over continental Europe and is still of importance in Finland.
Starting with the sixteenth century, enhanced world maritime trade, a boom in housing construction in Europe and the success and further Berggeschrey of the mining industry increased timber consumption sharply. The notion of'Nachhaltigkeit', sustainability in forestry, is connected to the work of Hans Carl von Carlowitz, a mining administrator in Saxony, his book Sylvicultura oeconomica, oder haußwirthliche Nachricht und Naturmäßige Anweisung zur wilden Baum-Zucht was the first comprehensive treatise about sustainable yield forestry. In the UK, and, to an extent, in continental Europe, the enclosure movement and the clearances favored enclosed private property; the Agrarian reformers, early economic writers and scientists tried to get rid of the traditional commons. At the time, an alleged tragedy of the commons together with fears of a Holznot, an imminent wood shortage played a watershed role in the controversies about cooperative land use patterns; the practice of establishing tree plantations in the British Isles was promoted by John Evelyn, though it had acquired some populari
Slash-and-burn
Slash-and-burn agriculture called fire-fallow cultivation, is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area; the downed vegetation, or "slash", is left to dry right before the rainiest part of the year. The biomass is burned, resulting in a nutrient-rich layer of ash which makes the soil fertile, as well as temporarily eliminating weed and pest species. After about three to five years, the plot's productivity decreases due to depletion of nutrients along with weed and pest invasion, causing the farmers to abandon the field and move over to a new area; the time it takes for a swidden to recover depends on the location and can be as little as five years to more than twenty years, after which the plot can be slashed and burned again, repeating the cycle. In India, the practice is known as jhoom. Slash-and-burn can be part of shifting cultivation, an agricultural system in which farmers move from one cultivable area to another.
It may be part of transhumance, the moving of livestock between seasons. A rough estimate is. In 2004, it was estimated that in Brazil alone, 500,000 small farmers each cleared an average of one hectare of forest per year; the technique is not sustainable for large human populations. Methods such as Inga alley cropping and slash-and-char have been proposed as alternatives which would cause less environmental degradation. A similar term is assarting, the clearing of forests for the purpose of agriculture. Assarting does not include burning. Slash-and-burn cultivation has been practiced throughout much of the world, in grasslands as well as woodlands. During the Neolithic Revolution, which included agricultural advancements, groups of hunter-gatherers domesticated various plants and animals, permitting them to settle down and practice agriculture, which provides more nutrition per hectare than hunting and gathering; this happened in the river valleys of Mesopotamia. Due to this decrease in food from hunting, as human populations increased, agriculture became more important.
Some groups could plant their crops in open fields along river valleys, but others had forests blocking their farming land. In this context, humans used slash-and-burn agriculture to clear more land to make it suitable for plants and animals. Thus, since Neolithic times, slash-and-burn techniques have been used for converting forests into crop fields and pasture. Fire was used before the Neolithic as well, by hunter-gatherers up to present times. Clearings created by the fire were made for many reasons, such as to draw game animals and to promote certain kinds of edible plants such as berries. Slash-and-burn fields are used and owned by a family until the soil is exhausted. At this point the ownership rights are abandoned, the family clears a new field, trees and shrubs are permitted to grow on the former field. After a few decades, another family or clan may use the land and claim usufructuary rights. In such a system there is no market in farmland, so land is not bought or sold on the open market and land rights are traditional.
In slash-and-burn agriculture, forests are cut months before a dry season. The "slash" is permitted to dry and burned in the following dry season; the resulting ash fertilizes the soil and the burned field is planted at the beginning of the next rainy season with crops such as upland rice, cassava, or other staples. Most of this work is done by hand, using such basic tools such as machetes, axes and makeshift shovels; the old American civilizations, like the Inca and Aztecs used this old agricultural technique. Large families or clans wandering in the lush woodlands long continued to be the most common form of society through human prehistory. Axes to fell trees and sickles for harvesting grain were the only tools people might bring with them. All other tools were made from materials they found at the site, such as fire stakes of birch, long rods, harrows made of spruce tops; the extended family conquered the lush virgin forest and cultivated their selected swidden plots, sowed one or more crops, proceeded on to forests, noted in their wanderings.
In the temperate zone, the forest regenerated in the course of a lifetime. So swidden was repeated several times in the same area over the years, but in the tropics the forest floor depleted. It was not only in the moors, as in Northern Europe, but in the steppe, prairie and barren desert in tropical areas where shifting cultivation is the oldest type of farming. Cultivation is similar to slash-and-burn.. Southern European Mediterranean climates have favored evergreen and deciduous forests. With slash-and-burn agriculture, this type of forest was less able to regenerate than those north of the Alps. Although in northern Europe one crop was harvested before grass was allowed to grow, in southern Europe it was more common to exhaust the soil by farming it for several years. Classical authors mentioned large forests, with Homer writing about "wooded Samothrace," Zakynthos and other woodlands; these authors indicated. Although parts of Europe aside from the north remained wooded, by the Roman Iron and early Viking Ages, forests were drastically reduced and settlements moved.
The reasons for this pattern of mobility, the transition to stable
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a community of living organisms in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment, interacting as a system. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy is incorporated into plant tissue. By feeding on plants and on one-another, animals play an important role in the movement of matter and energy through the system, they influence the quantity of plant and microbial biomass present. By breaking down dead organic matter, decomposers release carbon back to the atmosphere and facilitate nutrient cycling by converting nutrients stored in dead biomass back to a form that can be used by plants and other microbes. Ecosystems are controlled by internal factors. External factors such as climate, the parent material which forms the soil and topography, control the overall structure of an ecosystem, but are not themselves influenced by the ecosystem. Ecosystems are dynamic entities—they are subject to periodic disturbances and are in the process of recovering from some past disturbance.
Ecosystems in similar environments that are located in different parts of the world can end up doing things differently because they have different pools of species present. Internal factors not only control ecosystem processes but are controlled by them and are subject to feedback loops. Resource inputs are controlled by external processes like climate and parent material. Resource availability within the ecosystem is controlled by internal factors like decomposition, root competition or shading. Although humans operate within ecosystems, their cumulative effects are large enough to influence external factors like climate. Biodiversity affects ecosystem functioning, as do the processes of disturbance and succession. Ecosystems provide a variety of services upon which people depend; the term ecosystem was first used in 1935 in a publication by British ecologist Arthur Tansley. Tansley devised the concept to draw attention to the importance of transfers of materials between organisms and their environment.
He refined the term, describing it as "The whole system... including not only the organism-complex, but the whole complex of physical factors forming what we call the environment". Tansley regarded ecosystems not as natural units, but as "mental isolates". Tansley defined the spatial extent of ecosystems using the term ecotope. G. Evelyn Hutchinson, a limnologist, a contemporary of Tansley's, combined Charles Elton's ideas about trophic ecology with those of Russian geochemist Vladimir Vernadsky; as a result, he suggested. This would, in turn, limit the abundance of animals. Raymond Lindeman took these ideas further to suggest that the flow of energy through a lake was the primary driver of the ecosystem. Hutchinson's students, brothers Howard T. Odum and Eugene P. Odum, further developed a "systems approach" to the study of ecosystems; this allowed them to study the flow of material through ecological systems. Ecosystems are controlled both by internal factors. External factors called state factors, control the overall structure of an ecosystem and the way things work within it, but are not themselves influenced by the ecosystem.
The most important of these is climate. Climate determines the biome. Rainfall patterns and seasonal temperatures influence photosynthesis and thereby determine the amount of water and energy available to the ecosystem. Parent material determines the nature of the soil in an ecosystem, influences the supply of mineral nutrients. Topography controls ecosystem processes by affecting things like microclimate, soil development and the movement of water through a system. For example, ecosystems can be quite different if situated in a small depression on the landscape, versus one present on an adjacent steep hillside. Other external factors that play an important role in ecosystem functioning include time and potential biota; the set of organisms that can be present in an area can significantly affect ecosystems. Ecosystems in similar environments that are located in different parts of the world can end up doing things differently because they have different pools of species present; the introduction of non-native species can cause substantial shifts in ecosystem function.
Unlike external factors, internal factors in ecosystems not only control ecosystem processes but are controlled by them. They are subject to feedback loops. While the resource inputs are controlled by external processes like climate and parent material, the availability of these resources within the ecosystem is controlled by internal factors like decomposition, root competition or shading. Other factors like disturbance, succession or the types of species present are internal factors. Primary production is the production of organic matter from inorganic carbon sources; this occurs through photosynthesis. The energy incorporated through this process supports life on earth, while the carbon makes up much of the organic matter in living and dead biomass, soil carbon and fossil fuels, it drives the carbon cycle, which influences global climate via the greenhouse effect. Through the process of photosynthesis, plants capture energy from light and use it to combine carbon dioxide and water to produce carbohydrates and oxygen.
The photosynthesis carried out by all the plants in an ecosystem is called the gross primary production. About half of the GPP is consumed in plant respiration; the remainder, that portion of GPP, not used up by respirati
Nature reserve
A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research. Nature reserves may be designated by government institutions in some countries, or by private landowners, such as charities and research institutions, regardless of nationality. Nature reserves fall into different IUCN categories depending on the level of protection afforded by local laws, it is more protected than a nature park. Cultural practices that equate to the establishment and maintenance of reserved areas for animals date back to antiquity, with King Devanampiya Tissa of Anuradhapura establishing one of the world's earliest wildlife sanctuaries in the 3rd century BC. Early reservations had a religious underpinning, such as the'evil forest' areas of West Africa which were forbidden to humans, who were threatened with spiritual attack if they went there. Sacred areas taboo from human entry to fishing and hunting are known by many ancient cultures worldwide.
The world's first modern nature reserve was established in 1821 by the naturalist and explorer Charles Waterton around his estate in Walton Hall, West Yorkshire. He spent £9000 on the construction of a 3 mile long, 9 ft tall wall to enclose his park from poachers, he tried to encourage birdlife by hollowing out trunks for owls to nest in. He invented artificial nest boxes to house starlings and sand martins and unsuccessfully attempted to introduce little owls from Italy. Waterton allowed local people access to his reserve and was described by David Attenborough as “one of the first people anywhere to recognise not only that the natural world was of great importance but that it needed protection as humanity made more and more demands on it”. Drachenfels was protected as the first state-designated nature reserve in modern-day Germany; the first major nature reserve was Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, United States, followed by the Royal National Park near Sydney and the Barguzin Nature Reserve of Imperial Russia, the first of zapovedniks set up by a federal government for the scientific study of nature.
In Australia, a nature reserve is the title of a type of protected area used in the jurisdictions of the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and Western Australia. The term “nature reserve” is defined in the relevant statutes used in those states and territories rather than by a single national statute; as of 2016, 1767 out of a total of 11044 protected areas listed within the Australian National Reserve System used the term “nature reserve" in their names. In Brazil, nature reserves are classified as ecological stations estações ecológicas) or biological reserves by the National System of Conservation Units, their main objectives are preserving fauna and flora and other natural attributes, excluding direct human interference. Visits are allowed only with permission, only for educational or scientific purposes. Changes to the ecosystems in both types of reserve are allowed to restore and preserve the natural balance, biological diversity and natural ecological processes. Ecological stations are allowed to change the environment within defined limits for the purpose of scientific research.
A wildlife reserve in Brazil is protected, hunting is not allowed, but products and by-products from research may be sold. There are 30 nature reserves in Egypt; those nature reserves were built according to the laws no. 102/1983 and 4/1994 for protection of the Egyptian nature reserve. Egypt announced a plan from to build 40 nature reserves from 1997 to 2017, to help protect the natural resources and the culture and history of those areas; the largest nature reserve in Egypt is Gebel Elba in the southeast, on the Red Sea coast. Denmark has three national parks and several nature reserves, some of them inside the national park areas; the largest single reserve is Hanstholm Nature Reserve, which covers 40 km2 and is part of Thy National Park. In Sweden, there are 29 national parks; the first of them was established in 1909. In fact, Sweden was the first European country. There are 4,000 nature reserves in Sweden, they comprise about 85% of the surface, protected by the Swedish Environmental Code. In Estonia, there are 5 national parks, more than 100 nature reserves, around 130 landscape protection areas.
The largest nature reserve in Estonia is Alam-Pedja Nature Reserve, which covers 342 km2. As of 2017, France counts 10 national parks, around 8 marine parks. In 1995 Germany had 5,314 nature reserves covering 6,845 km2, the largest total areas being in Bavaria with 1,416 km2 and Lower Saxony with 1,275 km2. In Hungary, there are 10 National Parks, more than 15 nature reserves and more than 250 protected areas. Hortobágy National Park is the largest continuous natural grassland in Europe and the oldest national park in Hungary, it is situated on the plain of the Alföld. It was established in 1972. There are alkaline grasslands interrupted by marshes, they have a sizable importance. One of the most spectacular sights of the park is the autumn mi
Eugene, Oregon
Eugene is a city in the U. S. state of Oregon. It is at the southern end of the verdant Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette Rivers, about 50 miles east of the Oregon Coast; as of the 2010 census, Eugene had a population of 156,185. The Eugene-Springfield, Oregon metropolitan statistical area is the 146th largest metropolitan statistical area in the US and the third-largest in the state, behind the Portland Metropolitan Area and the Salem Metropolitan Area; the city's population for 2014 was estimated to be 160,561 by the US Census. Eugene is home to the University of Oregon, Northwest Christian University, Lane Community College; the city is noted for its natural environment, recreational opportunities, focus on the arts. Eugene's official slogan is "A Great City for the Arts and Outdoors", it is referred to as the "Emerald City" and as "Track Town, USA". The Nike corporation had its beginnings in Eugene. In 2021, the city will host the 18th Field World Championships.
The first people to settle in the Eugene area were known as the Kalapuyans written Calapooia or Calapooya. They made "seasonal rounds," moving around the countryside to collect and preserve local foods, including acorns, the bulbs of the wapato and camas plants, berries, they stored these foods in their permanent winter village. When crop activities waned, they returned to their winter villages and took up hunting and trading, they were known as the Chifin Kalapuyans and called the Eugene area where they lived "Chifin", sometimes recorded as "Chafin" or "Chiffin". Other Kalapuyan tribes occupied villages that are now within Eugene city limits. Pee-you or Mohawk Calapooians, Winefelly or Pleasant Hill Calapooians, the Lungtum or Long Tom, they were close-neighbors to the Chifin and were political allies. Some authorities suggest, it is that since the Santiam had an alliance with the Brownsville Kalapuyans that the Santiam influence went as far at Eugene. According to archeological evidence, the ancestors of the Kalapuyans may have been in Eugene for as long as 10,000 years.
In the 1800s their traditional way of life faced significant changes due to devastating epidemics and settlement, first by French fur traders and by an overwhelming number of United States colonists. French fur traders had settled seasonally in the Willamette Valley by the beginning of the 19th century, their settlements were concentrated in the "French Prairie" community in Northern Marion County but may have extended south to the Eugene area. Having developed relationships with Native communities through intermarriage and trade, they negotiated for land from the Kalapuyans. By 1828 to 1830 they and their Native wives began year-round occupation of the land, raising crops and tending animals. In this process, the mixed race families began to impact Native access to land, food supply, traditional materials for trade and religious practices. In July 1830, "intermittent fever" struck the lower Columbia region and a year the Willamette Valley. Natives traced the arrival of the disease new to the Northwest, to the U.
S. ship, captained by John Dominis. "Intermittent fever" is thought by researchers now to be malaria. According to Robert T. Boyd, an anthropologist at Portland State University, the first three years of the epidemic, "probably constitute the single most important epidemiological event in the recorded history of what would become the state of Oregon". In his book The Coming of the Spirit Pestilence Boyd reports there was a 92% population loss for the Kalapuyans between 1830 and 1841; this catastrophic event shattered the social fabric of Kalapuyan society and altered the demographic balance in the Valley. This balance was further altered over the next few years by the arrival of Anglo-American settlers, beginning in 1840 with 13 people and growing each year until within 20 years more than 11,000 US colonists, including Eugene Skinner, had arrived; as the demographic pressure from the colonists grew, the remaining Kalapuyans were forcibly removed to Indian reservations. Though some Natives escaped being swept into the reservation, most were moved to the Grand Ronde reservation in 1856.
Strict racial segregation was enforced and mixed race people, known as Métis in French, had to make a choice between the reservation and Anglo society. Native Americans could not leave the reservation without traveling papers and white people could not enter the reservation. Eugene Franklin Skinner, after whom Eugene is named, arrived in the Willamette Valley in 1846 with 1200 other colonists that year. Advised by the Kalapuyans to build on high ground to avoid flooding, he erected the first Anglo cabin on south or west slope of what the Kalapuyans called Ya-po-ah; the "isolated hill" is now known as Skinner's Butte. The cabin was used as a trading post and was registered as an official post office on January 8, 1850. At this time the settlement was known by Anglos as Skinner's Mudhole, it was relocated in 1853 and named Eugene City in 1853. Formally incorporated as a city in 1862, it was named Eugene in 1889. Skinner ran a ferry service across the Willamette River; the first major educational institution in the area was Columbia College, founded a few years earlier than the University of Oregon.
It fell victim to two major fires in four years, after the second fire, the college decided not to rebuild again. The part of south Eugene known as College Hill was the former location o
Fern
A fern is a member of a group of vascular plants that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from mosses by being vascular, i.e. having specialized tissues that conduct water and nutrients and in having life cycles in which the sporophyte is the dominant phase. Like other vascular plants, ferns have complex leaves called megaphylls, that are more complex than the microphylls of clubmosses. Most ferns are leptosporangiate ferns, sometimes referred to as true ferns, they produce coiled fiddleheads that expand into fronds. The group includes about 10,560 known extant species. Ferns are defined here in the broad sense, being all of the Polypodiopsida, comprising both the leptosporangiate and eusporangiate ferns, the latter itself comprising ferns other than those denominated true ferns, including horsetails or scouring rushes, whisk ferns, marattioid ferns, ophioglossoid ferns. Ferns first appear in the fossil record about 360 million years ago in the late Devonian period, but many of the current families and species did not appear until 145 million years ago in the early Cretaceous, after flowering plants came to dominate many environments.
The fern Osmunda claytoniana is a paramount example of evolutionary stasis. Ferns are not of major economic importance, but some are used for food, medicine, as biofertilizer, as ornamental plants and for remediating contaminated soil, they have been the subject of research for their ability to remove some chemical pollutants from the atmosphere. Some fern species, such as bracken and water fern are significant weeds world wide; some fern genera, such as Azolla can fix nitrogen and make a significant input to the nitrogen nutrition of rice paddies. They play certain roles in mythology and art. Like the sporophytes of seed plants, those of ferns consist of stems and roots. Stems: Fern stems are referred to as rhizomes though they grow underground only in some of the species. Epiphytic species and many of the terrestrial ones have above-ground creeping stolons, many groups have above-ground erect semi-woody trunks; these can reach up to 20 meters tall in a few species. Leaf: The green, photosynthetic part of the plant is technically a megaphyll and in ferns, it is referred to as a frond.
New leaves expand by the unrolling of a tight spiral called a crozier or fiddlehead fern. This uncurling of the leaf is termed circinate vernation. Leaves are divided into a sporophyll. A trophophyll frond is a vegetative leaf analogous to the typical green leaves of seed plants that does not produce spores, instead only producing sugars by photosynthesis. A sporophyll frond is a fertile leaf that produces spores borne in sporangia that are clustered to form sori. In most ferns, fertile leaves are morphologically similar to the sterile ones, they photosynthesize in the same way. In some groups, the fertile leaves are much narrower than the sterile leaves, may have no green tissue at all; the anatomy of fern leaves can either be simple or divided. In tree ferns, the main stalk that connects the leaf to the stem has multiple leaflets; the leafy structures that grow from the stipe are known as pinnae and are again divided into smaller pinnules. Roots: The underground non-photosynthetic structures that take up water and nutrients from soil.
They are always fibrous and structurally are similar to the roots of seed plants. Like all other vascular plants, the diploid sporophyte is the dominant phase or generation in the life cycle; the gametophytes of ferns, are different from those of seed plants. They are free-living and resemble liverworts, whereas those of seed plants develop within the spore wall and are dependent on the parent sporophyte for their nutrition. A fern gametophyte consists of: Prothallus: A green, photosynthetic structure, one cell thick heart or kidney shaped, 3–10 mm long and 2–8 mm broad; the prothallus produces gametes by means of: Antheridia: Small spherical structures that produce flagellate sperm. Archegonia: A flask-shaped structure that produces a single egg at the bottom, reached by the sperm by swimming down the neck. Rhizoids: root-like structures that consist of single elongated cells, that absorb water and mineral salts over the whole structure. Rhizoids anchor the prothallus to the soil. Ferns first appear in the fossil record in the early Carboniferous period.
By the Triassic, the first evidence of ferns related to several modern families appeared. The great fern radiation occurred in the late Cretaceous, when many modern families of ferns first appeared. Ferns were traditionally classified in the class Filices, in a Division of the Plant Kingdom named Pteridophyta or Filicophyta. Pteridophyta is no longer recognised as a valid taxon; the ferns are referred to as Polypodiophyta or, when treated as a subdivision of Tracheophyta, although this name sometimes only refers to leptosporangiate ferns. Traditionally, all of the spore producing vascular plants were informally denominated the pteridophytes, rendering the term synonymous with ferns and fern allies; this can be confusing because members of the division Pteridophyta were denominated pteridophytes. Traditionally, three discrete groups have be
Erode
Erode is a city and seventh largest urban agglomeration in Tamil Nadu, India. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the district. Administered by a municipal corporation since 2009, Erode is a part of the Erode Lok Sabha constituency that elects its member of parliament. Located on the banks of River Kaveri, it is situated centrally on South Indian Peninsula, about 400 kilometres southwest of its state capital Chennai and about 80 kilometres east of Coimbatore and about 50 kilometres east of Tiruppur. Erode is an agricultural, textile and a BPO hub and among the largest producers of turmeric, hand-loom and knitwear, food products. Etymology of Erode might have its origin in the Tamil phrase Eru Odai meaning two streams based on presence of two water courses of Perumpallam and Kalingarayan Canal. Alternatively, it might have been derived from Tamil phrase Eera Odu meaning'wet skull' based on Indian mythology. During Sangam age, Erode region formed a part of the historical Kongu Nadu region ruled by Cheras and by Kalabhras who were ousted by Pandyas around 590 CE.
Afterwards, it was ruled by Rashtrakutas and by Cholas from 10th to early 13th century, when Erode came under the rule of Delhi Sultanate. Erode was annexed by Vijayanagar Empire in 1378 CE till gaining independence in 1559 CE by Madurai Nayaks, who were defeated by Hyder Ali in 1736 CE. Consequent to fall of Tipu Sultan of Mysore in 1799, Erode was controlled by British East India Company with Maharaja of Mysore as principal ruler. Erode remained under British rule until Indian independence in 1947. Erode has a hilly terrain with undulating topography as the Urugumalai, Chennimalai hills surround the city; the Amaravathy, Noyyal and Kaveri rivers flow into the city. While no notable mineral resources are available, loam and limestone are found in abundance in the river beds; the city has a semi-arid climate with moderate to high temperatures throughout the year and low rainfall. Temperature ranges from 80 °F to 96 °F with an average rainfall of 812 mm. Like rest of the state, March to June are the hottest and December to January are the coldest months of the year.
While the Southwest monsoon brings scanty rainfall, bulk of the rainfall is received during the Northeast monsoon in October and December. The municipality covers an area of 8.44 km2 As of 2011, Erode has 521,776 in population with a sex-ratio of 996, above national average of 929. Literacy rate of 85% compares favorably to the national average of 73%; the city had 43,184 households with Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes accounting for 11% and 0.15% of the population respectively. Of its 66,135 workers, 61,382 are classified as other workers and rest in agriculture and household industries; as of 2001, 52 slums were identified with 33,000 people residing in slums. Per religious census of 2011, Erode had 12 % Muslims and 4 % Christians; the population had increased 11 times during the 20th century. While Tamil is the main spoken language, English is common as the medium of instruction in educational institutions and in service sector. Erode district's gross domestic product grew at 15.5% in 2008 ahead of the state's GDP growth by 4%.
According to Indian Census of 2001, urban workforce participation rate for Erode is 35% with growth in secondary and tertiary sectors and a corresponding decrease in the primary sector. Major employment is provided by textile industry, turmeric industry and oil and rice mills with 69% of its workforce employed in tertiary sector. Erode was famous for several markets. Erode has the countries largest turmeric market. Turmeric prices for whole India, fixed in Erode Turmeric Market. Erode has the countries largest textile market one is Abdul Gani Textile Market and another one is Texvalley. PDEXCIL is set up its regional office in the city by Ministry of Government of India, it is a non-profit organization working for the development of Powerloom Industry and promoting export of Fabrics and Made ups from Powerloom Manufacturers. Erode was famous for its cattle market in district. There was four major nottable cattle market in the district. Among that one was in the core city known as karungalpalayam cattle market one of the largest cattle market in the state As of 2001, district had two industrial estates with 60 tanneries, 165 lock manufacturing and several cotton spinning mills.
While hand loom weaving and carpet manufacturing flourished in early days, emergence of power loom led to 24,189 small scale and 59 large scale units by 2000. Because of the district was rich in agriculture; the city was largest manufactures of food products in the state. Lot of food product companies and poultries were found in and around the city Erode is known as "Turmeric City" or "Yellow City" on account of production of turmeric in the state, it has one of the largest markets for coconut. and coconut oil production in south India. Erode stands second in leather processing in the state, next to Ambur. Paper companies like Seshasayee paper boards are located on banks of river Kaveri. Sugarcane processing extracts juice to make sugar with its remains used for paper manufacturing. Additionally, dal mills, vanaspathi manufacturing and screen printing and printing press are located in the city. Erode is known for its train service centers. Thindal Murugan Temple, situated 6 km from the city is the most prominent temple in the city.
Periya Mariamman Temple, Natadreeswarar Temple, the hillock temple of the Kaveri river, Sangameswarar Temple, CSI Brough Church, Thowheeth mosque, Ravlathul Janna mosque, Bazaar Mosque and Jamia Pallivasal are prominent religious des
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