Eliciting factors affecting distribution of traditional knowledge (TK) and cultural importance of plant resources is central in ethnobiology. Socio-demographic attributes and ecological apparency hypothesis (EAH) have been widely documented as drivers of TK distribution, but their synergistic effect is poorly documented. Here, we focused on Borassus aethiopum, a socio-economic important agroforestry palm in Africa, analyzing relationships between the number of use-reports and cultural importance on one hand, and informant socio-demographic attributes (age category and gender) on the other hand, considering the EAH at multi-scale contexts. Our hypothesis is that effects of socio-demographic attributes on use-reports and cultural importance are shaped by both local (village level) and regional (chorological region level) apparency of study species. We expected so because distribution of knowledge on a resource in a community correlates to the versatility in the resource utilization but also connections among communities within a region. Nine hundred ninety-two face-to-face individual semi-structured interviews were conducted in six villages of low versus high local abundance of B. aethiopum spanning three chorological regions (humid, sub-humid and semi-arid) also underlying a gradient of increasing distribution and abundance of B. aethiopum. Number of use-reports and score of importance of uses of B. aethiopum were recorded in six use-categories including medicine, food, handcraft, construction, firewood, and ceremonies and rituals. Data were analyzed using Poisson and ordered logistic models. Informants listed 121 uses for B. aethiopum: medicine (66 uses), handcraft (16 uses), food (16 uses), construction (12 uses), firewood (6 uses), and ceremonies and rituals (5 uses); but food use was the most culturally important use (2.45 ± 0.03), followed by construction (0.61 ± 0.03), medicinal (0.57 ± 0.03) and handcraft (0.56 ± 0.03), firewood (0.29 ± 0.02), and ceremonies and rituals (0.03 ± 0.01). Food use was the most important for women who were specialized in hypocotyls and fruits collection for commercialization. Men valued more the species for handcrafting, construction, and medicine. The number of use-reports was significantly dependent on age category and gender, and differences between age categories (young, adult, and old) in particular were dependent upon local and regional apparency. In particular, discrepancies among age categories were higher in areas of low abundance and distribution, which may be linked to different speed in the process of knowledge acquisition. In areas of low abundance, the species past abundance was also found instrumental in understanding current knowledge distribution. Findings suggest that studies aiming at understanding relationship between current TK and cultural importance of a resource on one hand and socio-demographic attributes on the other hand should consider the resource current local and regional apparency but further its local past abundance. The study also confirms that B. aethiopum is a socio-economic important species in Benin.

The initial phase dynamics of an epidemic without containment measures is commonly well modelled using exponential growth models. However, in the presence of containment measures, the exponential model becomes less appropriate. Under the implementation of an isolation measure for detected infectives, we propose to model epidemic dynamics by fitting a flexible growth model curve to reported positive cases, and to infer the overall epidemic dynamics by introducing information on the detection/testing effort and recovery and death rates. The resulting modelling approach is close to the Susceptible-Infectious-Quarantined-Recovered model framework. We focused on predicting the peaks (time and size) in positive cases, active cases and new infections. We applied the approach to data from the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy. Fits on limited data before the observed peaks illustrate the ability of the flexible growth model to approach the estimates from the whole data.

Background and aims – Geographic patterns of phenotypic variability can inform understanding of the resilience potential of plant species to environmental hazards such as climate change. Such understanding provides support for conservation and domestication efforts. Here, we investigated natural morphological variation of the individuals, fruits, seeds, and leaves of the tropical shrub Annona senegalensis Pers. along a climatic gradient. Methods – Morphological data were collected on shrubs, fruits, seeds, and leaves of 150 shrubs from five populations in the three climatic zones of Benin. Linear mixed effects models were used to test the variability of the morphological traits of the species and also to estimate the variance components in order to tease apart the importance of each source of variation. The most important morphological descriptors discriminating climatic zones were identified using a stepwise discriminant analysis. Redundancy analysis was then used to determine the relationships between discriminant morphological traits and bioclimatic variables. Key results – Morphological traits of A. senegalensis varied greatly both within and among climatic zones. A substantial part (42%) of the among-climatic zones phenotypic variability in the species was attributable to climate, mainly rainfall and temperature. Morphological traits such as big shrubs, big fruits, and high number of seeds per fruit were associated with high mean annual rainfall and low mean temperature of the warmest quarter. Conclusions – The findings suggest an important zonal adaptation of the species to climate variability. The phenotypic diversity pattern that we highlighted can be useful when designing conservation policies for the species. However, quantitative genetics through common garden or reciprocal transplantation experiments related to the species’ populations would enable to explore the heritable part of the observed variability to support effective conservation and domestication efforts.

Synsepalum dulcificum (Schumach. & Thonn. Daniell) est un arbuste originaire de l’Afrique de l’Ouest, inscrit sur la liste des espèces vulnérables de l’UICN. Au Bénin, son importance pour les popu- lations locales reste peu documentée. L’étude avait pour objectif d’évaluer les connaissances endogènes, la valeur d’usage et l’importance économique de l’espèce pour les populations locales. Des enquêtes ethnobotaniques et éco- nomiques ont été conduites auprès de 606 personnes réparties dans 13 groupes socioculturels du Sud-Bénin. Des para- mètres ethnobotaniques (fréquence de citation, valeur d’usage ethnobotanique) et économique (revenu moyen réalisé) ont été calculés, et leur significativité éprou- vée par l’ajustement de modèles linéaires généralisés et le test de Kruskal et Wallis. Les résultats ont montré que S. dulcificum était bien connu des populations locales du Sud-Bénin (100 % des enquêtés), qui le cultivaient notamment dans les jardins de case. Toutes les parties de la plante étaient utilisées à des fins médicinales, alimentaires et spirituelles. Les connais- sances et la valeur d’usage de la plante variaient entre les groupes socioculturels du Sud-Bénin, avec un gradient décrois- sant Est-Ouest. Les connaissances et la valeur d’usage variaient suivant le sexe, l’âge et le domaine d’activité, les connais- sances étant concentrées au niveau des hommes, des adultes et personnes âgées, et des praticiens de la médecine tradition- nelle. L’évaluation économique a révélé un circuit de commercialisation relativement court. Le faible revenu moyen réalisé sur la vente des fruits (environ 28 USD par an et par commerçant) illustre la faible valeur économique de l’espèce qui constitue une ressource de subsistance en déclin. La conservation et la valorisation optimale de l’espèce nécessiteront des investigations sur les plans nutritionnel, phytochimique et pharmaceutique, phénologique, mor- phologique et génétique, le développe- ment d’une sylviculture, l’intégration de la plante dans les politiques formelles de conservation, et enfin le développement d’une chaîne de valeurs à travers la mise en place d’une véritable filière.