Search results for: forest biodiversity

Authors: Anju Batta Sehgal

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Climate change is a major challenge in terms of agriculture, food security and rural livelihood for thousands of people especially the poor in Himachal, which falls in North-Western Himalayas. Agriculture contributes over 45 per cent to net state domestic product. It is the main source of income and employment. Over 93 per cent of population is dependent on agriculture which provides direct employment to 71 percent of its people. Area of operation holding is about 9,79 lakh hectares owned by 9.14 lakh farmers. About 80 per cent area is rain-fed and farmers depend on weather gods for rains. Region is a home of diverse ethnic communities having enormous socio-economic and cultural diversities, gifted with range of farming systems and rich resource wealth, including biodiversity, hot spots and ecosystems sustaining millions of people living in the region. But growing demands of ecosystem goods and services are posing threats to natural resources. Climate change is already making adverse impact on the indigenous people. The rural populace is directly dependent for all its food, shelter and other needs on the climate. Our aim should be to shift the focus to indigenous people as primary actors in terms of global climate change monitoring, adaptations and innovations. Objective of this paper is to identify the climate change related threats and vulnerabilities associated with agriculture as a sector and agriculture as people’s livelihood. Broadly it analyses the connections between the nature and rural consumers the ethnic groups.

Keywords: climate change, agriculture, indigenous people, Himachal Pradesh

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Authors: Khizar Samiullah Samiullah, Riffat Yasin, Khurrum Feroz, Omer Draz, Memmona Nazish

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New fossil remains of artiodactyl have been recovered from three Late Miocene localities, Lava, Dhok Bun Ameer Khatoon and Hasnoot. These localities belong to lower and middle Siwalik Hills of Pakistan, the Chinji and Dhok Pathan Formation respectively and are remarkably rich in fossils of artiodactyl. The fauna mainly comprises various families of order Artiodactyla; Cervidae, Equidea, Proboscidea, Giraffidea, Rhinocerotidae, Tragulidea, Suidae and Primates. In Chinji Formation Lava and Dhok Bun Ameer Khatoon are located in district Chakwal while in Upper Dhok Pathan Formation the best fossils exposure site is Hasnoot which is located in District Jhelum, Punjab, Pakistan. Specimens described and discussed here include right and left maxilla, isolated upper premolars and molars which have been collected during extensive fieldwork. After morphological and comparative analysis the collection is attributed to Giraffokeryx, Giraffa, Listriodon, Dorcatherium, Selenoportax and Pachyportax. In this study evolutionary status, taxonomy and biogeographical distribution as well as the relationship of different Artiodactyls have been discussed comprehensively. The Palaeoenvironmental studies reveal the persistence of mosaics of diverse habitats ranging from tropical evergreen forest to subtropical ones, closed seasonal woodlands to wooded savannas during the deposition of these outcrops.

Keywords: Artiodactyla, fossil dentition, late Miocene, lower and middle Siwaliks

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Authors: Juliana C. Alencar, Monica Ferreira do Amaral Porto

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The blue-green infrastructure in recent years has been pointed out as a possibility to increase the environmental quality of watersheds. The regulation ecosystem services brought by these areas are many, such as the improvement of the air quality of the air, water, soil, microclimate, besides helping to control the peak flows and to promote the quality of life of the population. This study proposes a blue-green infrastructure scenario for the Jaguaré watershed, located in the western zone of the São Paulo city in Brazil. Based on the proposed scenario, it was verified the impact of the adoption of the blue and green infrastructure in the control of the peak flow of the basin, the benefits for the avifauna that are also reflected in the flora and finally, the quantification of the regulation ecosystem services brought by the adoption of the scenario proposed. A survey of existing green areas and potential areas for expansion and connection of these areas to form a network in the watershed was carried out. Based on this proposed new network of green areas, the peak flow for the proposed scenario was calculated with the help of software, ABC6. Finally, a survey of the ecosystem services contemplated in the proposed scenario was made. It was possible to conclude that the blue and green infrastructure would provide several regulation ecosystem services for the watershed, such as the control of the peak flow, the connection frame between the forest fragments that promoted the environmental enrichment of these fragments, improvement of the microclimate and the provision of leisure areas for the population.

Keywords: green and blue infrastructure, sustainable drainage, urban waters, ecosystem services

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Authors: Višnjica Vučetić, Mislav Anić, Jelena Bašić, Petra Sviličić, Ivana Tomašević

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The Agroclimatic Atlas of Croatia (Atlas) for the periods 1981–2010 and 1991–2020 is monograph of six chapters in digital form. Detailed descriptions of particular agroclimatological data are given in separate chapters as follows: agroclimatic indices based on air temperature (degree days, Huglin heliothermal index), soil temperature, water balance components (precipitation, potential evapotranspiration, actual evapotranspiration, soil moisture content, runoff, recharge and soil moisture loss) and fire weather indices. The last chapter is a description of the digital methods for the spatial interpolations (R and GIS). The Atlas comprises textual description of the relevant climate characteristic, maps of the spatial distribution of climatological elements at 109 stations (26 stations for soil temperature) and tables of the 30-year mean monthly, seasonal and annual values of climatological parameters at 24 stations. The Atlas was published in 2021, on the seventieth anniversary of the agrometeorology development at the Meteorological and Hydrological Service of Croatia. It is intended to support improvement of sustainable system of agricultural production and forest protection from fire and as a rich source of information for agronomic and forestry experts, but also for the decision-making bodies to use it for the development of strategic plans.

Keywords: agrometeorology, agroclimatic indices, soil temperature, water balance components, fire weather index, meteorological and hydrological service of Croatia

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Authors: Soha A. Bahanshal, Vaibhav Verdhan, Bayong Kim

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Graduation rates at six-year colleges are becoming a more essential indicator for incoming fresh students and for university rankings. Predicting student graduation is extremely beneficial to schools and has a huge potential for targeted intervention. It is important for educational institutions since it enables the development of strategic plans that will assist or improve students' performance in achieving their degrees on time (GOT). A first step and a helping hand in extracting useful information from these data and gaining insights into the prediction of students' progress and performance is offered by machine learning techniques. Data analysis and visualization techniques are applied to understand and interpret the data. The data used for the analysis contains students who have graduated in 6 years in the academic year 2017-2018 for science majors. This analysis can be used to predict the graduation of students in the next academic year. Different Predictive modelings such as logistic regression, decision trees, support vector machines, Random Forest, Naïve Bayes, and KNeighborsClassifier are applied to predict whether a student will graduate. These classifiers were evaluated with k folds of 5. The performance of these classifiers was compared based on accuracy measurement. The results indicated that Ensemble Classifier achieves better accuracy, about 91.12%. This GOT prediction model would hopefully be useful to university administration and academics in developing measures for assisting and boosting students' academic performance and ensuring they graduate on time.

Keywords: prediction, decision trees, machine learning, support vector machine, ensemble model, student graduation, GOT graduate on time

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Authors: Filippo Ranalli, Forest Flager, Martin Fischer

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This paper presents a ground structure method to optimize the topology and discrete member sizing of steel frame structures in order to minimize total installed cost, including material, fabrication and erection components. The proposed method improves upon existing cost-based ground structure methods by incorporating constructability considerations well as satisfying both strength and serviceability constraints. The architecture for the method is a bi-level Multidisciplinary Feasible (MDF) architecture in which the discrete member sizing optimization is nested within the topology optimization process. For each structural topology generated, the sizing optimization process seek to find a set of discrete member sizes that result in the lowest total installed cost while satisfying strength (member utilization) and serviceability (node deflection and story drift) criteria. To accurately assess cost, the connection details for the structure are generated automatically using accurate site-specific cost information obtained directly from fabricators and erectors. Member continuity rules are also applied to each node in the structure to improve constructability. The proposed optimization method is benchmarked against conventional weight-based ground structure optimization methods resulting in an average cost savings of up to 30% with comparable computational efficiency.

Keywords: cost-based structural optimization, cost-based topology and sizing, optimization, steel frame ground structure optimization, multidisciplinary optimization of steel structures

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Authors: Banu Karasah, Derya Sarı

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Nature changes as a result of human necessities constantly. This change mostly feels in natural water sources which are reconstructed with an effect of dams and motorways. On the other hand, dams and motorways demolish and re-shape nature while the visual quality of landscape gets a new character. Changing and specialization new landscapes will be very important to protection-usage balance to explore sustainable usage facilities. The main cause of the selection of Artvin city is, it has very important geographical location and one of the most attraction points in the World with its biodiversity, conservation areas and natural landscape characteristics. Coruh River is one of the most significant landscape identity element of Artvin. This river begins with Erzurum and falls into the Black Sea in Batumi in Georgia, many dams, and hydroelectric station are located during this basin. Borcka, Muratli and Deriner dams have already been built. Moreover, Deriner is 6th highest dams all over the world. As a result of dams, motorways route were re-shaped and the ways which have already changed because of elevation is directly affected several of natural destruction. In contrast, many different reservoirs in Coruh Basin provide new vista point that has high visual quality. In this study, we would like to evaluate with sustainable landscape design in 76 km river corridor, which is mainly based on Deriner, Borcka and Muratli Dams and determination of their basin-lakes recreational potential and opportunities. Lastly, we are going to give some suggestion about the potential of the corridor.

Keywords: Artvin, dam reservoirs, landscape assessment, river corridor, visual quality

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Authors: Md. Kamrul Hassan, Ari Pappinen

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Wood energy is the single most important form of renewable energy in many parts of the world especially in the least developing countries in South Asia like Bangladesh. The last portion of the national population of this country depends on wood energy for their daily primary energy need. This paper deals with the estimation of wood fuel at the current level and identifies the challenges and strategies related to the development of this resource. Desk research, interactive research and field survey were conducted for gathering and analyzing of data for this study. The study revealed that wood fuel plays a significant role in total primary energy supply in Bangladesh, and the contribution of wood fuel in final energy consumption in 2013 was about 24%. Trees on homestead areas, secondary plantation on off forest lands, and forests are the main sources of supplying wood fuel in the country. Insufficient supply of wood fuel against high upward demand is the main cause of concern for sustainable consumption, which eventually leads deterioration and depletion of the resources. Inadequate afforestation programme, lack of initiatives towards the utilization of set-aside lands for wood energy plantations, and inefficient management of the existing resources have been identified as the major impediments to the development of wood energy in Bangladesh. The study argued that enhancement of public-private-partnership afforestation programmes, intensifying the waste and marginal lands with short-rotation tree species, and formulation of biomass-based rural energy strategies at the regional level are relevant to the promotion of sustainable wood energy in the country.

Keywords: Bangladesh, challenge, supply, wood energy

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Authors: Milena Lakicevic

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The paper deals with the problem of optimizing management options for urban parks within different scenarios of nature protection and tourism importance. The procedure is demonstrated on a case study example of urban parks in Novi Sad (Serbia). Six management strategies for the selected area have been processed by the decision support method PROMETHEE. Two criteria used for the evaluation were nature protection and tourism and each of them has been divided into a set of indicators: for nature protection those were biodiversity and preservation of original landscape, while for tourism those were recreation potential, aesthetic values, accessibility and culture features. It was pre-assumed that each indicator in a set is equally important to a corresponding criterion. This way, the research was focused on a sensitivity analysis of criteria weights. In other words, weights of indicators were fixed and weights of criteria altered along the entire scale (from the value of 0 to the value of 1), and the assessment has been performed in two-dimensional surrounding. As a result, one could conclude which management strategy would be the most appropriate along with changing of criteria importance. The final ranking of management alternatives was followed up by investigating the mean PROMETHEE Φ values for all options considered and when altering the importance of nature protection/tourism. This type of analysis enabled detecting an alternative with a solid performance along the entire scale, i.e., regardlessly of criteria importance. That management strategy can be seen as a compromise solution when the weight of criteria is not defined. As a conclusion, it can be said that, in some cases, instead of having criteria importance fixed it is important to test the outputs depending on the different schemes of criteria weighting. The research demonstrates the state of the final decision when the decision maker can estimate criteria importance, but also in cases when the importance of criteria is not established or known.

Keywords: criteria weights, PROMETHEE, sensitivity analysis, urban parks

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Authors: M. Aghili, S. Tabarestani, C. Freytes, M. Shojaie, M. Cabrerizo, A. Barreto, N. Rishe, R. E. Curiel, D. Loewenstein, R. Duara, M. Adjouadi

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A major challenge in medical studies, especially those that are longitudinal, is the problem of missing measurements which hinders the effective application of many machine learning algorithms. Furthermore, recent Alzheimer's Disease studies have focused on the delineation of Early Mild Cognitive Impairment (EMCI) and Late Mild Cognitive Impairment (LMCI) from cognitively normal controls (CN) which is essential for developing effective and early treatment methods. To address the aforementioned challenges, this paper explores the potential of using the eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) algorithm in handling missing values in multiclass classification. We seek a generalized classification scheme where all prodromal stages of the disease are considered simultaneously in the classification and decision-making processes. Given the large number of subjects (1631) included in this study and in the presence of almost 28% missing values, we investigated the performance of XGBoost on the classification of the four classes of AD, NC, EMCI, and LMCI. Using 10-fold cross validation technique, XGBoost is shown to outperform other state-of-the-art classification algorithms by 3% in terms of accuracy and F-score. Our model achieved an accuracy of 80.52%, a precision of 80.62% and recall of 80.51%, supporting the more natural and promising multiclass classification.

Keywords: eXtreme gradient boosting, missing data, Alzheimer disease, early mild cognitive impairment, late mild cognitive impair, multiclass classification, ADNI, support vector machine, random forest

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Authors: Arthur Rouanet, Marina Gavaldao

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Throughout the second half of the 20th Century, estimates indicate that soil losses due to erosion have impacted one-third of worldwide arable lands. As such, these losses are amongst the largest threats to agriculture sustainability and production potential. Increasing tree cover is considered one of the most efficient methods to mitigate this phenomenon. The present study describes soil erosion measurements in different land cover situations in Alto Huayabamba, Peru, using the experimental plot methodology. Three parcels were studied during a one-year period (starting September 2015) with 3 different land cover scenarii evaluated: 10-year-old secondary tropical forest (P1), 3-year-old native species reforestation (P2) and bare soil (P3). Information was collected systematically after each rain to assess the average rainfall, water runoff and soil eroded. The results indicate that variance in land cover has a strong impact on the level of soil erosion. In our study, it was found that P1, P2 and P3 had erosion rates of 92 kg/ha/yr, 11 tons/ha/yr and 59,7 tons/ha/year respectively. Using a replacement cost method, the potential of limiting erosion by reforesting bare soil was estimated to be 561 $/ha/yr after three years and 687 $/ha/yr after ten years. Finally, the results of the study allow us to assess the potential soil services provided by vegetation, which could be an important building block for a payment for ecosystems services (PES) scheme. The latter has been increasingly spread all over the world through Public-Private Partnerships (PPP).

Keywords: agroforestry, erosion, ecosystem services, payment for ecosystem services (PES), water conservation, public private partnership (PPP)

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Authors: M. Sanjarani, A. Danehkar, A. Mashincheyan, A. H. Javid, S. M. R. Fatemi

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The oil spill in marine water has direct impact on coastal resources and community. Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) map is the first step to assess the potential impact of an oil spill and minimize the damage of coastal resources. In order to create Environmental Sensitivity Maps for the Chabahar bay (Iran), information has been collected in three different layers (Shoreline Classification, Biological and Human- uses resources) by means of field observations and measurements of beach morphology, personal interviews with professionals of different areas and the collection of bibliographic information. In this paper an attempt made to prepare an ESI map for sensitivity to oil spills of Chabahar bay coast. The Chabahar bay is subjected to high threaten to oil spill because of port, dense mangrove forest,only coral spot in Oman Sea and many industrial activities. Mapping the coastal resources, shoreline and coastal structures was carried out using Satellite images and GIS technology. The coastal features classified into three major categories as: Shoreline Classification, Biological and Human uses resources. The important resources classified into mangrove, Exposed tidal flats, sandy beach, etc. The sensitivity of shore was ranked as low to high (1 = low sensitivity,10 = high sensitivity) based on geomorphology of Chabahar bay coast using NOAA standards (sensitivity to oil, ease of clean up, etc). Eight ESI types were found in the area namely; ESI 1A, 1C, 3A, 6B, 7, 8B,9A and 10D. Therefore, in the study area, 50% were defined as High sensitivity, less than 1% as Medium, and 49% as low sensitivity areas. The ESI maps are useful to the oil spill responders, coastal managers and contingency planners. The overall ESI mapping product can provide a valuable management tool not only for oil spill response but for better integrated coastal zone management.

Keywords: ESI, oil spill, GIS, Chabahar Bay, Iran

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Authors: Wendu Admasu, Assefa Sintayehu, Alemu Gezahgne, Zewdu Terefework

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Eucalyptus is the most widely planted forest tree species in the world. In Ethiopia, pathogenic fungi pose an increasing threat to Eucalyptus species. Due to limited research, there is insufficient information on the associated diseases and pathogens. This study investigated Eucalyptus diseases, the extent of their damage, and the causal fungal pathogens. A Eucalyptus disease survey was conducted in the Eucalyptus forestry areas of Ethiopia during the growth years 2019/20 and 2020/21. Disease assessment and sampling were carried out in eighteen plantations at nine locations. E. camaldulensis was the most dominant species planted in the surveyed areas. The field study shows a high incidence and severity of canker diseases. Diseased stem and branch samples were collected, cultured on malt extract agar media and studied. The results of morphological and ITS sequence analysis confirmed that the fungal species Neofusicoccum parvum, Lasiodiplodia theobromae, and Aplosporella hesperidica caused the observed canker symptoms. This is the first report of Lasiodiplodia theobromae and Aplosporella hesperidica causing diseases in Eucalyptus plants in Ethiopia. Changes in global climate and environmental factors, such as altitude, are believed to have a strong impact on the susceptibility of Eucalyptus plants to diseases. Strict quarantine practices and continuous monitoring of pathogenic and endophytic fungal species associated with Eucalyptus trees are issued to be prioritized to effectively control and manage the disease.

Keywords: Neofusicoccum, Lasiodiplodia, Aplosporella, pathogenicity, phylogeny, severity

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Authors: Suresh Kumar Bandooni, Mirana Laishram

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The Mid Himalaya of Garhwal Himalaya in Uttarakhand (India) has a complex Physiographic features withdiversified climatic conditions and therefore it is suspect to environmental vulnerability. Thenatural disasters and also anthropogenic activities accelerate the rate of environmental vulnerability. To analyse the environmental vulnerability, we have used geoinformatics technologies and numerical models and it is adoptedby using Spatial Principal Component Analysis (SPCA). The model consist of many factors such as slope, landuse/landcover, soil, forest fire risk, landslide susceptibility zone, human population density and vegetation index. From this model, the environmental vulnerability integrated index (EVSI) is calculated for Pasol Gad Watershed of Garhwal Himalaya for the years 1987, 2000, and 2013 and the Vulnerability is classified into five levelsi.e. Very low, low, medium, high and very highby means of cluster principle. The resultsforeco-environmental vulnerability distribution in study area shows that medium, high and very high levels are dominating in the area and it is mainly caused by the anthropogenic activities and natural disasters. Therefore, proper management forconservation of resources is utmost necessity of present century. It is strongly believed that participation at community level along with social worker, institutions and Non-governmental organization (NGOs) have become a must to conserve and protect the environment.

Keywords: eco-environment vulnerability, spatial principal component analysis, remote sensing, geographic information system, institutions, Himalaya

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Authors: B. W. U. Deepashika

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Rathnapura is located in the south-western part of Sri Lanka, the so-called wet zone. This area receives rainfall mainly from south-west monsoons from May to September. During the remaining months of the year, there is also a considerable precipitation due to convective rains. The average annual precipitation is about 4,000 to 5,000 mm. The average temperature varies from 24 to 35 °C, and there are high humidity levels. Mosses are one of the important groups of the flora of this region and they are very sensitive to climatic changes. Proper exploration and systematic studies on mosses in many parts of the country have not yet been carried out. Therefore, launching a study on the bryophyte flora of the country has become very important. The preliminary survey of bryophytes was carried out in Galahitiya, Meneripitiya Grama Niladari Division, located in Ratnapura district, in Sabaragamuwa province which is situated 20 kilometres away from Rathnapura. Its geographical coordinates are 6° 35' North, 80° 35' East. Samples were collected from different habitats including home gardens, near the wells, small forest patch, tea land, near the stream, from non-cemented wall, from cement wall, and from ditches. Two small quadrates (1ˣ 1m2) were used in each study site. Taxa were identified up to the generic level using taxonomic keys produced for different geographic regions of the world. In the present survey, a total of 09 mosses belonging to seven families were identified to their generic level. They are Family-Bryaceae (3) (Bryum sp, Brachymenium sp, Pohlia sp), Fissidentaceae (1) (Fissidens sp), Leucobryaceae (1) (Octoblepharum sp), Calymperaceae (1) (Calymperes sp), Polytrichaceae (1) (Pogonatum sp), Pterobryaceae (1) (Pterobryopsis sp), Sematophyllaceae (1) (Taxithelium sp).

Keywords: mosses, wet zone, Sabaragamuwa province, Sri Lanka

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Authors: Sintayehu W. Dejene, Ignas M. A. Heitkönig, Herbert H. T. Prins, Zewdu K. Tessema, Willem F. de Boer

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Current theories on diversity-disease relationships describe host species diversity and species identity as important factors influencing disease risk, either diluting or amplifying disease prevalence in a community. Whereas the simple term ‘diversity’ embodies a set of animal community characteristics, it is not clear how different measures of species diversity are correlated with disease risk. We, therefore, tested the effects of species richness, Pielou’s evenness and Shannon’s diversity on bTB risk in cattle in the Afar Region and Awash National Park between November 2013 and April 2015. We also analysed the identity effect of a particular species and the effect of host habitat use overlap on bTB risk. We used the comparative intradermal tuberculin test to assess the number of bTB infected cattle. Our results suggested a dilution effect through species evenness. We found that the identity effect of greater kudu - a maintenance host – confounded the dilution effect of species diversity on bTB risk. bTB infection was positively correlated with habitat use overlap between greater kudu and cattle. Different diversity indices have to be considered together for assessing diversity-disease relationships, for understanding the underlying causal mechanisms. We posit that unpacking diversity metrics is also relevant for formulating control strategies to manage cattle in ecosystems characterized by seasonally limited resources and intense wildlife-livestock interactions.

Keywords: evenness, diversity, greater kudu, identity effect, maintenance hosts, multi-host disease ecology, habitat use overlap

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Authors: Saria Almarzook, Monika Reissmann, Gudrun Brockmann

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Due to its history, occurrence in different ecosystems and diverse using, the modern horse (Equus caballus) shows large variability in size, appearance, behavior and habits. At all times, breeders try to create groups (breeds, strains) representing high homology but showing clear differences in comparison to other groups. A great interest of analyzing phenotypic and genetic traits looking for real diversity and genetic uniqueness existents for Arabian horses in Syria. 90 Arabian horses from governmental research center of Arabian horses in Damascus were included. The horses represent three strains (Kahlawi, Saklawi, Hamdani) originated from different geographical zones. They were raised on the same farm, under stable conditions. Twelve phenotypic traits were measured: wither height (WH), croup width (CW), croup height (CH), neck girth (NG), thorax girth (TG), chest girth (ChG), chest depth (ChD), chest width (ChW), back line length (BLL), body length (BL), fore cannon length (FCL) and hind cannon length (HCL). The horses were divided into groups according to age (less than 2 years, 2-4 years, 4-9 years, over 9 years) and to sex (male, female). The statistical analyzes show that age has significant influence of WH while the strain has only a very limited effect. On CW, NG, BLL, FCL and HCL, there is only a significant influence of sex. Age has significant effect on CH and BL. All sources of classes have a significant effect on TG, ChG, ChD and ChW. Strain has a significant effect on the BL. These results provide first information for real biodiversity in and between the strains and can be used to develop the breeding work in the Arabian horse breed.

Keywords: Arabian horse, phenotypic traits, strains, Syria

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Authors: Fabrice Houngnandan, Celia Fery, Thomas Bockel, Julie Deter

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Getting water cleaner and stopping global biodiversity loss requires indices to measure changes and evaluate the achievement of objectives. The endemic and protected seagrass species Posidonia oceanica is a biological indicator used to monitor the ecological quality of marine Mediterranean waters. One ecosystem index (EBQI), two biotic indices (PREI, Bipo), and several landscape indices, which measure the composition and configuration of the P. oceanica seagrass at the population scale have been developed. While the formers are measured at monitoring sites, the landscape indices can be calculated for the entire seabed covered by this ecosystem. This present work aims to search on the link between these indices and the best scale to be used in order to maximize this link. We used data collected between 2014 to 2019 along the French Mediterranean coastline to calculate EBQI, PREI, and Bipo at 100 sites. From the P. oceanica seagrass distribution map, configuration and composition indices around these different sites in 6 different grid sizes (100 m x 100 to 1000 m x 1000 m) were determined. Correlation analyses were first used to find out the grid size presenting the strongest and most significant link between the different types of indices. Finally, several models were compared basis on various metrics to identify the one that best explains the nature of the link between these indices. Our results showed a strong and significant link between biotic indices and the best correlations between biotic and landscape indices within the 600 m x 600 m grid cells. These results showed that the use of landscape indices is possible to monitor the health of seagrass beds at a large scale.

Keywords: ecological indicators, decline, conservation, submerged aquatic vegetation

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Authors: Anna Gaspard, Stéphane Boudreau, Martin Simard

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Altered temperature and precipitation regimes associated with climate change generally result in improved conditions for plant growth. For Arctic and sub-Arctic ecosystems, this new climatic context favours an increase in primary productivity, a phenomenon often referred to as "greening". The development of an erect shrub cover has been identified as the main driver of Arctic greening. Although this phenomenon has been widely documented at the circumpolar scale, little information is available at the scale of plant communities, the basic unit of the Arctic, and sub-Arctic landscape mosaic. The objective of this study is to quantify the variation of NDVI within the different plant communities of Nunavik, which will allow us to identify the plant formations that contribute the most to the increase in productivity observed in this territory. To do so, the variation of NDVI extracted from Landsat images for the period 1984 to 2020 was quantified. From the Landsat scenes, annual summer NDVI mosaics with a resolution of 30 m were generated. The ecological mapping of Northern Quebec vegetation was then overlaid on the time series of NDVI maps to calculate the average NDVI per vegetation polygon for each year. Our results show that NDVI increases are more important for the bioclimatic domains of forest tundra and erect shrub tundra, and shrubby formations. Surface deposits, variations in mean annual temperature, and variations in winter precipitation are involved in NDVI variations. This study has thus allowed us to quantify changes in Nunavik's vegetation communities, using fine spatial resolution satellite imagery data.

Keywords: climate change, latitudinal gradient, plant communities, productivity

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Authors: Marine Nozadze, George Japoshvili, George Melika

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In 2020-2021 we studied oaks gall wasps of different oak species in Georgia at 7 locations of their natural distribution: 1. Quercuse petrea subsp. iberica - Mtskheta municipality, village. Mukhattskaro; 2. Quercus subsp. pendunculifloria - Kvareli municipality, village. Gramy;3. Quercus robur subsp. imeretina -Baghdati Municipality, Ajameti Reserve; 4. Quercus pontica -Chokhatauri municipality, village. Tskhratskaro; 5. Quercus macranthera -Tetritskaro Municipality, Algeti National Park; 6. Quercuse petrea subsp. iberica - Shuakhevi municipality, village. Uchamba 7. Quercus hartwissiana - Baghdatis municipality, village. Dimi. Samples were collected from early spring to late autumn. As a result, 7 forms of galls were collected and described wich caused by different species of oak gall wasps: 1. Neuroterus numismalis asexual gall 2. Neuroterus quercusbaccarum asexual galls 3. Cynips korsakovi asexual gall 4. Biorhiza pallida sexual gall 5. Neuroterus quercusbaccarum asexual galls 6. Neuroterus numismalis sexual gall 7. Cynips quercusfolii. Neuroterus quercusbaccarum asexual galls form the most represented of them: In Algeti National Park; In Mtskheta municipality; In Shuakhevi municipality and Ajameti reserve. The most damaged locations by oak gall wasps were Algeti National Park and Mtskheta Municipality, whereas the most biodiversity according to galls form was represented In Algeti National Park.

Keywords: gall wasps, oak, cynipidae, species

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Authors: Ralph Lugon, Randolf Ramseyer

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The beauty and quality of the natural heritage can be appreciated in different ways by different users, but the delicate balance of the environment in a nature reserve must be respected. The case of the territorial anchorage of the Grangettes natural reserve gives an interesting insight into the users' perception of the environmental constraints and standards of tourist activities. The nature reserve was once conceived as a sanctuary of natural heritage, a place where flora and fauna could flourish with minimal human interference. However, over time and with the transition to modernity, the values and meanings of the reserve have changed for visitors and the people living in the surrounding area. Today, The Grangettes nature reserve is a place of relaxation for urban dwellers with limited knowledge of nature and a lack of awareness of conservation issues. As a result, the reserve is now threatened by the negative impacts of human activities and mass tourism on its environment. Les Grangettes is a nature reserve that faces the challenge of preserving biodiversity while managing tourist flows. Ways must be found to accommodate new types of visitors from towns and cities who are looking for new activities, quality services and facilities, as well as aesthetic inspiration. To ensure the long-term conservation of the area, the flow of tourists must be carefully controlled. Through a dual qualitative-quantitative approach in 2021-22, this paper explores new visitor trends, changes in the reserve, and potential consequences for other stakeholders in the ecosystem. The purpose of this research is to assess users' perceptions of environmental constraints and standards on tourist activities in a nature reserve.

Keywords: outdoor recreation, nature-based tourism, over tourism, protected area, user's perceptions

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Authors: Parthiban Srinivasan

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With recent advances in computational power and access to enough data in biosciences, artificial intelligence methods are increasingly being used in drug discovery research. These methods are essentially a series of advanced statistics based exercises that review the past to indicate the likely future. Our goal is to develop a model that accurately predicts biological activity and toxicity parameters for novel compounds. We have compiled a robust library of over 150,000 chemical compounds with different pharmacological properties from literature and public domain databases. The compounds are stored in simplified molecular-input line-entry system (SMILES), a commonly used text encoding for organic molecules. We utilize an automated process to generate an array of numerical descriptors (features) for each molecule. Redundant and irrelevant descriptors are eliminated iteratively. Our prediction engine is based on a portfolio of machine learning algorithms. We found Random Forest algorithm to be a better choice for this analysis. We captured non-linear relationship in the data and formed a prediction model with reasonable accuracy by averaging across a large number of randomized decision trees. Our next step is to apply deep neural network (DNN) algorithm to predict the biological activity and toxicity properties. We expect the DNN algorithm to give better results and improve the accuracy of the prediction. This presentation will review all these prominent machine learning and deep learning methods, our implementation protocols and discuss these techniques for their usefulness in biomedical and health informatics.

Keywords: deep learning, drug discovery, health informatics, machine learning, toxicity prediction

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Authors: Rui Lança, Elisa Silva, Fátima Farinha, Miguel José Oliveira, Manuel Duarte Pinheiro, Cátia Miguel

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Tourism has a great potential to bring up progress across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). If well managed and monitored, the tourism sector can create quality jobs, reduce poorness and offer incentives for environmental preservation, helping on the transition towards more inclusive and resilient economies. However, without proper safeguards and investments, expansion of the tourism market will increase pressure on biodiversity and the ecosystems on which the livelihoods of local communities depend. Competitivity is a key dimension in tourism, sustainable tourism challenge new dimensions to competitivity, namely environmental, social, institutional and economic achieve a medium and long-term competitivity. It is undoubtedly clear on the tourism sector, the importance of the region sustainability in the current touristic destinations offer. The basis of a tourism region prosperity will depend on /of it. The OBSERVE project intends to be an instrument for monitoring and evaluating the sustainability levels of the Algarve region. Its main objective is to provide environmental, economic, social-cultural and institutional indicators to support the decision-making process for a sustainable growth of the region. The project´s main goal is a digital portal with the most relevant indicators to allow evaluating and communicating the performance of the region in a sustainable growth perspective. This paper presents the OBSERVE project and highlights the potential contribution to a broad perspective of competitivity and its contribution for different stakeholders and the touristic value chain. Limitations and opportunities are also discussed.

Keywords: sustainable tourism, competitivity, OBSERVE project, Algarve region

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Authors: Kazushi Murata, Fabian Watermann, O. B. Herve Gonroudobou, Le Thuy Hang, Toshiro Yamanaka, M. Larry Lopez C.

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Aims: Black pine coastal forests play an important role as a windbreak and as a natural barrier to sand and salt spray inland in Japan. The recent invasion of N₂-fxing black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) trees in these forests is expected to have a nutritional contribution to black pine trees growth. Thus, the effect of this new source of N on black pine trees' N assimilation needs to be assessed. Methods: In order to evaluate this contribution, tree-ring isotopic composition (δ¹⁵N) and nitrogen content (%N) of black pine (Pinus thunbergii) trees in a pure stand (BPP) and a mixed stand (BPM) with black locust (BL) trees were measured for the period 2000–2019 for BPP and BL and 1990–2019 for BPM. The same measurements were conducted in plant tissues and in soil samples. Results: The tree ring δ15N values showed that for the last 30 years, BPM trees gradually switched from BPP to BL-derived soil N starting in the 1990s, becoming the dominant N source from 2000 as no significant diference was found between BPM and BL tree ring δ¹⁵N values from 2000 to 2019. No difference in root and sapwood BPM and BL δ¹⁵N values were found, but BPM foliage (−2.1‰) was different to BPP (−4.4‰) and BL (−0.3‰), which is related to the different N assimilation pathways between BP and BL. Conclusions: Based on the results of this study, the assimilation of BL-derived N inferred from the BPM tissues' δ¹⁵N values is the result of an increase in soil bioavailable N with a higher δ¹⁵N value.

Keywords: nitrogen-15, N₂-fxing species, mixed stand, soil, tree rings

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Authors: Daniel Angwenyi

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Relationships between protected area managers and adjacent communities, as well as communities' attitudes, views and perceptions of these areas, are critical for the success of conservation efforts. It is, therefore, of utmost importance for protected area managers and administrators understand how local communities view these areas and their management, so that they can build sustainable working relationships. This paper is based on a survey of 375 semi-structured questionnaires administered to household heads, living at distances ranging from the edge of the reserves to 50 km away from the reserve boundary across Great Fish River, Mkambati, Hluleka, and Tsolwana in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. The paper provides a longitudinal assessment of households’ knowledge on the role of reserves and how the reserves. In addition to households’ knowledge, the paper also provides an assessment of their attitudes towards the location and management, as well as views on the best way to manage the reserves. For 79% of community members reserves are important as they were seen to conserve biodiversity and valuable ecological systems necessary for sustaining life. Most (75%) respondents indicated that closely located reserves gave them opportunities to learn about nature conservation and to subsidize their incomes through tourism ventures. However, 58% had a problem with reserves’ staff, due to restrictions on resource use, which negatively impacted their livelihoods. Over half (51%) of the households were of the view that sustainable conservation can only be achieved through an integrated approach, where local communities’ and conservation needs are given equal weighting. Thus, it is concluded that reserve management should look at communities as active partners in the running of protected areas if sustainable conservation objectives are to be realised.

Keywords: nature conservation, conservation knowledge, local communities, views, protected areas

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Authors: Kelli G. Thorup, Kristopher A. Blee

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Climate change enhances the occurrence of extreme weather: wildfires, drought, rising summer temperatures, all of which dramatically decline forest growth and increase tree mortality in the mixed-conifer forests of Sierra Nevada, California. However, microbiota living in mutualistic relations with plant rhizospheres have been found to mitigate the effects of suboptimal environmental conditions. The goal of this research is to isolate native beneficial bacteria, plant-growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), that can alleviate heat stress in Pinus ponderosa seedlings. Bacteria were isolated from the rhizosphere of Pinus ponderosa juveniles located in mixed-conifer stand and further characterized for PGP potential based on their ability to produce key growth regulatory phytohormones including auxin, cytokinin, and gibberellic acid. Out of ten soil samples taken, sixteen colonies were isolated and qualitatively confirmed to produce indole-3-acetic acid (auxin) using Salkowski’s reagent. Future testing will be conducted to quantitatively assess phytohormone production in bacterial isolates. Furthermore, bioassays will be performed to determine isolates abilities to increase tolerance in heat-stressed Pinus ponderosa seedlings. Upon completion of this research, a PGPR could be utilized to support the growth and transplantation of conifer seedlings as summer temperatures continue to rise due to the effects of climate change.

Keywords: conifer, heat-stressed, phytohormones, Pinus ponderosa, plant-growth promoting rhizobacteria

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Authors: Nebiyou Masebo

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The rapid conversion of an old aged agroforestry (AF) based agricultural system to monocropping farming system in southern Ethiopia is increasing. The consequence of this, combined with climate change, has been impaired biodiversity, soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC), and soil organic carbon (SOC). The AF system could curb such problems due it is an ecologically and economically sustainable strategies. This study was aimed to investigate different agroforestry practices (AFPs) on MBC and SOC in southern Ethiopia. Soil samples were collected from homegarden based agroforestry practice (HAFP), crop land based agroforestry practice (ClAFP), woodlot based agroforestry practice (WlAFP), and trees on soil and water conservation based agroforestry practice (TSWAFP) using two depth layer (0-30 & 30-60 cm) by systematic sampling. Moreover, woody species inventorywas also collected. The chloroform fumigation extraction method was employed to determine MBC from different AFP types. In this study, the value of MBC and SOC decreased significantly with soil depth (p< 0.05). Besides, AFP type, soil depth, woody species diversity, and key soil properties also strongly influenced MBC and SOC (p< 0.05). In this study, the MBC was the highest (786 mg kg⁻¹ soil) in HAFP, followed by WlAFP (592 mg kg⁻¹ soil), TSWAFP (421 mg kg⁻¹ soil), and ClAFP (357 mg kg⁻¹ soil). The highest mean value of SOC (43.5Mg C ha⁻¹) was recorded in HAFP, followed by WlAFP (35.1Mg C ha⁻¹), TSWAFP (22.3 Mg C ha⁻¹), while the lowest (21.8 Mg C ha⁻¹) was recorded in ClAFP. The HAFP had high woody species diversity, and the lowest was recorded in ClAFP. The finding indicated that SOC and MBC were significantly affected by land management practices, and HAFP has the potential to improve MBC and SOC through good management practices of AFP.

Keywords: agroforestry practices, microbial biomass carbon, soil carbon, rapid conversion

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Authors: S. Mokhtar, R. Ibrahim, K. Abdan, A. Rashidi

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The population in the world are growing in very fast rate. It is expected that urban growth and development would create serious questions of food production and processing, transport, and consumption. Future smart green city policies are emerging to support new ways of visualizing, organizing and managing the city and its flows towards developing more sustainable cities in ensuring food security while maintaining its biodiversity. This is a survey paper analyzing the feasibility of developing a smart vertical farming system for climbing food plant to meet the need of food consumption in urban cities with an alternative green material. This paper documents our investigation on specific requirement for farming high valued climbing type food plant suitable for vertical farming, development of appropriate biocomposite material composition, and design recommendations for developing a new smart vertical farming system inside urban buildings. Results include determination of suitable specific climbing food plant species and material manufacturing processes for reinforcing natural fiber for biocomposite material. The results are expected to become recommendations for developing alternative structural materials for climbing food plant later on towards the development of the future smart vertical farming system. This paper contributes to supporting urban farming in cities and promotes green materials for preserving the environment. Hence supporting efforts in food security agenda especially for developing nations.

Keywords: biocomposite, natural reinforce fiber, smart farming, vertical farming

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Authors: Yongqin Zhang, John Lett

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Geospatial technologies have been increasingly used in agriculture for various applications and purposes in recent years. Unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) fit the needs of farmers in farming operations, from field spraying to grow cycles and crop health. In this research, we conducted a practical research project that used drone technology to design and map optimal locations and layouts of irrigation systems for agriculture farms. We flew a DJI Mavic 2 Pro drone to acquire aerial remote sensing images over two agriculture fields in Forest, Mississippi, in 2022. Flight plans were first designed to capture multiple high-resolution images via a 20-megapixel RGB camera mounted on the drone over the agriculture fields. The Drone Deploy web application was then utilized to develop flight plans and subsequent image processing and measurements. The images were orthorectified and processed to estimate the area of the area and measure the locations of the water line and sprinkle heads. Field measurements were conducted to measure the ground targets and validate the aerial measurements. Geospatial analysis and photogrammetric measurements were performed for the study area to determine optimal layout and quantitative estimates for irrigation systems. We created maps and tabular estimates to demonstrate the locations, spacing, amount, and layout of sprinkler heads and water lines to cover the agricultural fields. This research project provides scientific guidance to Mississippi farmers for a precision agricultural irrigation practice.

Keywords: drone images, agriculture, irrigation, geospatial analysis, photogrammetric measurements

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Authors: Ram Prasad Baral, Vinogradov Dmitriy Valerievich, Rameshwar Adhikari

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Diabetes has posed a great threat to the human health worldwide, both in developed and developing countries. The disease has basically rooted from the dramatically changed way of living of the present day human civilization as our living has deviated from what the nature has adapted us for. In this context, due to availability of wide range of climatic condition and hence the wide spectrum of biodiversity, Nepal is blessed with a valuable reservoir of medicinal herbs. These assets have been utilized and developed practices in traditional medicines and Ayurvedic way of treatment over several thousand years in the region. It has been established since ancient times that each and every plant has a specific medicinal value. There are many plants’ products which have been utilized in Ayurvedic medicine for the effective treatment of diabetes. The medicaments are less expensive and pose practically no side effects. In this work, we report a general survey of anti-diabetic properties of some medicinal herbs with pronounced effects and their applications. The plants covered in this study originate from far western region of Nepal and include Ficus racemosa, Momordica charantia, Azadirachta indica, Helieteres isora, Saraca asoca, Ichnocarpus frutescens, Tinospora sinensis, Commiphora mukul, Coccinia grandis, and Hippophae salicifolia.

Keywords: Ficus racemosa, Momordica charantia, Azadirachta indica, Helieteres isora, Saraca asoca, Ichnocarpus frutescens, Tinospora sinensis, Commiphora mukul, Coccinia grandis, Hippophae salicifolia

Procedia PDF Downloads 554