There is a large number of species existing in the world; each year, however, the number of the endangered ones rapidly increases. Nowadays, captive breeding becomes an option for their survival in refugees. Sufficient population with satisfactory breeding management gives hope for survival to the endangered species (in mid-term) or even possible future reintroduction to their natural habitat. WAZA is currently the world's leading association of worldwide zoos and similar breeding facilities. Because these institutions operate as a network to facilitate the exchange of reared individuals, for conservation purposes, their captive populations may be seen as one large population characterized by its size, i.e., the total number of individuals. Such view is currently recognized by many conservationists as the so-called concept of Noah's Ark. The space on the Ark is limited, therefore it is needed to heed the characteristics of the species aboard to maximize the conservation potential. Many factors influence the presence of species in zoological gardens. Following previous studies we selected some factors that may be important, i.e., body lenght, taxonomy, and IUCN status. Analysis of these factors among the main reptile clades shall reveal the pattern of reptile composition in worldwide zoos. One of the factors...

This diploma thesis deals with the theme of horticultural therapy in the Czech Republic. The thesis is especially focused on the utilization of this therapy with seniors. The theoretical part contains chapters dealing with age, needs, and horticultural therapy, which is an effective way of meeting the needs of the elderly. The horticultural therapy is presented from the historical point of view. In addition the state of the horticultural therapy in Czech Republic is described in general. Furthermore this chapter describes the usage of the horticultural therapy abroad. Key features of the horticultural therapy are presented in order to ensure effectiveness of this method. Therapeutic gardens are defined in this part, as well as key differences between horticultural therapy and other generally used therapeutic approaches. The research is based on semi-structured interviews with relevant persons in the Czech Republic. The interviews were conducted with three groups of people. The first group consists from individuals who are mainly oriented in the theoretical level of horticultural therapy. For example they have an overview of the state of horticultural therapy in the Czech Republic, especially in the realization of horticultural therapy or legislative issues. The second group are those who practice...

My work will aim to castle garden in Dobříš, her decoration and history. Bigger attention will be given to person of sculpturer Ignác František Platzer, which workshop did the sculpture decoration in the garden.

Heading: Utilization of ZOO Dvůr Králové in Education This thesis deals with the educational function of zoos and capacity utilization of the ZOO Dvůr Králové nad Labem in ethological fieldwork. The thesis results into a summary of theoretical knowledge concerning zoological gardens and their educational function supplemented by the results of questionnaire survey detecting the concept of perception of education in the Czech and foreign zoos. Further result of this thesis is a set-out of full-scale materials for ethological fieldwork including introductory lecture, worksheets and methodological manuals for teachers. Key words: fieldwork, zoological garden, educational program, worksheet

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Operation Market Garden is famous for its failure, although before its execution, all signs pointed to an imminent Allied victory. As well as being outnumbered in both men and weapons the Germans were also disorganized due to previous defeats. The reason why the operation failed has, therefore, interested many. Various explanations include logistics and communications as well as politics. However, today there is still no commonly accepted explanation and new books about the operation are being written. At the strategic level the problem for the Allies was to get across the rivers and canals in Holland to reach the industrial Ruhr in Germany. At the tactical level each watercourse was a problem. Because there is a lack of study of the operation from an engineering perspective, the purpose of this essay is to achieve that by combining land warfare theory with engineering lessons learned. In this qualitative case study J. F. C. Fuller’s theory of protection, offensive power, and movement is used to explain how engineering affected the outcome of the operation. The analysis shows that engineering played a decisive role in the operation and concludes that the outcome of the operation depended on a few critical situations. The Germans used counter mobility effectively to dictate where to fight the battles. At these chosen locations they used survivability measures, which enabled them to fight a static battle and hold key terrain. Allied mobility operations were vital to their assault, and without engineers the land component would have been stopped on the first day of the operation.

Penstemon is one of North America's largest endemic genera with over 280 described species. These species are distributed throughout most of North America from the Arctic northern latitudes to tropics of Central America. The genus has historically been divided into six subgenera, but has recently been reorganized into two subgenera following some recent phylogenetic studies. I made a comprehensive assessment of the Penstemon genus' geographic distribution utilizing herbaria databases by ecoregion to discuss the general ecologic adaptations of each historic subgenera. I also assessed the Penstemon genus' bee pollinator diversity utilizing online databases of bee specimen collections associated with Penstemon flowers. I investigated the efficacy of utilizing the plastid genomes (plastomes) of 29 species in the Lamiales order, including five newly sequenced Penstemon plastomes, for analyzing phylogenetic relationships and resolving problematic clades. I compared whole-plastome based phylogenies to phylogenies based on individual gene sequences (matK, ndhF, psaA, psbA, rbcL, rpoC2, and rps2) and concatenated sequences. I found that my whole-plastome based phylogeny had higher nodal support than all other phylogenies, which suggests that it provides greater accuracy in describing the hierarchal relationships among taxa as compared to other methods. I found that the genus Penstemon forms a monophyletic clade sister to, but separate from, the Old World taxa of the Plantaginaceae family included in our study. My whole-plastome based phylogeny also supports the rearrangement of the Scrophulariaceae family and improves resolution of major clades and genera of the Lamiales. I evaluated 16 accessions of P. cyaneus with 14 accessions of closely related Penstemon species in common garden in two distinct environments in Aberdeen, ID and Provo, UT during 2018 and 2019. I evaluated the accessions for key commercial seed production traits including survival, plant height, number of stems, and seed production. Both common gardens received supplemental irrigation during 2018, but I withheld irrigation during 2019. Plant survival in our Aberdeen, ID site was not significantly different between years, but survival was a significantly lower in 2019 than in 2018 at our Provo, UT site. The mean survival for P. cyaneus accessions ranged from 56% to 94%, and the mean seed production ranged from 91.2 kg/ha to 397.6 kg/ha. I recommend developing a commercial seed source derived from pooling germplasm of six accessions (PECY3-367, PECY3-371, PECY3-376, PECY3-443, PECY3-457, and PECY3-458). These accessions had mean survival rates of 82-94%, and seed production of 196.2-397.6 kg/ha.

Western prairie clover [Dalea ornata (Douglas ex Hook.) Eaton & J. Wright] is a perennial legume that occurs in the northern Great Basin, Snake River Basin, and southern Columbia Plateau, whereas Searls prairie clover [Dalea searlsiae (A. Gray) Barneby], also a perennial legume, occurs in the southern Great Basin and surrounding areas. Understanding the genetic and ecotypic variation of these prairie clovers is a prerequisite for developing populations suitable for rangeland revegetation in the western USA. DNA sequences of internal transcribed spacer (ITS/5.8S) and trnK/matK were used to study the phylogeny of these species. The species were distinguished by DNA sequences from both regions and conserved haplotypes were observed between and within species. Common-garden plots of 22 collections of western prairie clover from Idaho, Oregon, and Washington and 20 collections of Searls prairie clover from Utah and Nevada were established in northern Utah for phenotypic evaluation. Significant variation was detected among the collections for all traits measured in the common gardens for both species. Flowering date was correlated with collection-site temperature and elevation in western prairie clover collections, whereas biomass-related traits were closely related with collection-site precipitation in Searls prairie clover. Population structure from amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers resulted in two distinct, genetically differentiated groups and a third admixed group in western prairie clover, and flowering date played a significant role in discriminating those genetic-based groupings of collections. For western prairie clover, two populations are recommended for development, one from the Deschutes River watershed and another from the remaining collections. For Searls prairie clover, two genetically different groups of collections were identified from southern Utah and eastern Nevada and from northwestern Utah. Three western Nevada collections exhibited close association with eastern Nevada and southern Utah groups for AFLP-markers but with collections from northwestern Utah for phenotypic traits. Strong isolation by distance was observed for Searls prairie clover collections suggesting that genetic drift and gene flow are major factors for determining population structure in this species. As a result, two regional seed sources should be developed for Searls prairie clover, one from northwestern Utah and the other from eastern Nevada and southern Utah.

Two separate experiments were designed to assess the value of Lacy Buckwheat (Eriogonum corymbosum ) as a low water landscape plant. Low water use landscapes can contribute to water conservation in arid climates. Developing a palette of plants that are both attractive and drought tolerant can promote the acceptance of low water use landscapes as an alternative to the traditional bluegrass landscapes of the Intermountain West. Eriogonum corymbosum is an attractive subshrub species native to low rainfall areas of the Colorado Plateau. A strip plot design containing four repetitions with four randomly assigned plants each of Eriogonum corymbosum , Eriogonum thompsoniaeand the control species Cornus sericea `Kelseyi' was established to determine E.corymbosum tolerance to frequent irrigation. Two water treatments were assigned to the repetitions for each species. One treatment was watered by a drip irrigation system with sixteen liters of water every three days; the other treatment was not watered. Stomatal conductance (Gs) and plant water potential were assessed weekly for each species from June through August for the years 2009 and 2010. In 2009 and 2010 bothEriogonum accessions showed no significant difference with the water treatment/accession interaction. NeitherE. corymbosum accession exhibited differences in stomatal conductance or water potential between the wet and dry treatments for the length of study season over both years.Cornus sericea `Kelseyi' showed less ability to withstand the prolonged dry frequencies. Eriogonum corymbosum has many aesthetic qualities, in addition to being drought tolerant, such as long duration late season blooming of yellow and white flowers, and an appealing hemispherical crown shape. A second study was designed to investigate the morphological diversity of thirteen Eriogonum accessions collected in the state of Utah and established in a common garden. Nineteen different variables made up of both quantitative and qualitative morphological characteristics comprised of leaf, canopy and floral characteristics were selected to compare between and within accessions. These characteristics were observed or measured, then used in a Multidimensional Preference analysis (MDPREF) to facilitate the selection of potential cultivars. The MDPREF is useful in selecting accessions with unique combinations of ornamental characteristics that could have a marketable advantage.

This is a study of Epicurus garden in Athens in the 300´s bce, and the method of rehabilitation applied in the garden of Alnarp today at the Swedish University of Agricultural Science. The study aims to pinpoint areas of comparison in methods of healing in a garden environment, in Epicurus garden versus the rehabilitating garden of Alnarp. To make this comparison I have split my analysis into four parts, the conversational therapy, the hierarchy, the garden and its community, and finally the isolation from society. This is a qualitative study, and methods used is, amongst others, hermeneutics.The essay ends with a final discussion of the finds, which conclude that although very different contexts in both time and space, it is easy to find similarities between the two.