scholarly journals Four records of new to Egypt gastropod species including the first reported Tropical Leatherleaf slug Laevicaulis alte (d’A. de Férussac, 1822) (Pulmonata: Veronicellidae)

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 138-156
Author(s):  
Reham Fathey Ali ◽  
David Gwyn Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Nile Delta ◽  
Agricultural Fields ◽  
Gastropod Species ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
Anatomical Characters ◽  
Agricultural Areas ◽  
First Time ◽  
Activity Season ◽  
Terrestrial Mollusks

A survey of terrestrial mollusks was performed during their activity season in various spots of gardens, nurseries and agricultural fields in Cairo, Giza as well as in some neighboring areas between December 2014 and October 2018. Several invasive terrestrial gastropod species were identified. These gastropods are invasive and abundant pests causing considerable and serious damage to agricultural areas in the Nile Delta Region of Egypt. The specimens were collected from different locations in the governorates of Cairo and Giza. A total of 12 species (8 species of terrestrial snails and 4 of slugs) were identified by their shell characteristics and genital-anatomical characters. The following four species were identified for the first time in Egyptian gardens and nurseries: 1) Polygyra cereolus (Megerle von Mühlfeld, 1816), 2) Oxychilus cf. cellarius (O. F. Müller, 1774), 3) Zonitoides arboreus (Say, 1816) and 4) Laevicaulis alte (d’ A. de Férussac, 1822), which is particularly injurious to agricultural production. The other invasive species reported in this study were recorded in other agricultural fields and are common pests of gardens, nurseries and agricultural areas in Egypt. This study presents essential information on each species, their original and current distribution in Egyptian agricultural fields.

scholarly journals Optimal Solutions for the Use of Sewage Sludge on Agricultural Lands

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 585
Author(s):  
Catalina Iticescu ◽  
Puiu-Lucian Georgescu ◽  
Maxim Arseni ◽  
Adrian Rosu ◽  
Mihaela Timofti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heavy Metals ◽  
Sewage Sludge ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Chemical Characteristics ◽  
Optimal Solutions ◽  
Physico Chemical ◽  
Agricultural Areas ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Made In

The use of sewage sludge in agriculture decreases the pressure on landfills. In Romania, massive investments have been made in wastewater treatment stations, which have resulted in the accumulation of important quantities of sewage sludge. The presence of these sewage sludges coincides with large areas of degraded agricultural land. The aim of the present article is to identify the best technological combinations meant to solve these problems simultaneously. Adapting the quality and parameters of the sludge to the specificity of the land solves the possible compatibility problems, thus reducing the impact on the environment. The physico-chemical characteristics of the fermented sludge were monitored and optimal solutions for their treatment were suggested so as to allow that the sludge could be used in agriculture according to the characteristics of the soils. The content of heavy metals in the sewage sludge was closely monitored because the use of sewage sludge as a fertilizer does not allow for any increases in the concentrations of these in soils. The article identifies those agricultural areas which are suitable for the use of sludge, as well as ways of correcting some parameters (e.g., pH), which allow the improvement of soil quality and obtained higher agricultural production.

scholarly journals Investigation of pesticide residues in surface water in some areas of agricultural production at Ho Chi Minh city

2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 106-119
Author(s):  
Phu Ly Sy Nguyen ◽  
Nguyen Duc Do ◽  
Hien Thi To
Keyword(s):  
Surface Water ◽  
Pesticide Residues ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Chromatographic Method ◽  
Organophosphorus Pesticides ◽  
Ho Chi Minh City ◽  
Growth Stages ◽  
High Concentrations ◽  
Gas Chromatographic Method ◽  
Agricultural Areas

Residual levels of organochlorine and organophosphorus pesticides in surface water in some agricultural areas at Ho Chi Minh City were investigated in 2012. Four organophosphorus pesticides including Malathion, Parathion, Ethion and Trithion and seven organochlorine pesticides including Alpha - HCH, beta-HCH, gammaHCH, aldrin, Heptachlor – epoxide, AlphaEndosulfan and Endosulfan-sulfate were determined in the surface water in four dicstricts : Binh Chanh, Hoc Mon, Cu Chi and Binh Tan using gas chromatographic method with electron capture detector (GCECD). The results showed that residues of pesticide were found with high concentrations in surface water in agricultural areas and pesticide residues changed depending on growth stages of crops. The concentration and distribution of pesticides were different in the water samples at different sites. Residues of pesticides such as Parathion, Ethion and Trithion were detected in surface water although these chemicals had been banned.

scholarly journals Complexity of ecosystem services in agricultural fields, in particular the biodiversity

2015 ◽  
pp. 43-51
Author(s):  
Ibolya Csíder
Keyword(s):  
Complex System ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Soil Pollution ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Agricultural Fields ◽  
Uniform Definition ◽  
Water And Soil Pollution ◽  
Farmland Ecosystem

Since the Convention on Biological Diversity a lot of papers have been published how to measure and value biodiversity. In the last decades publications on agro-ecosystems become more frequent and play a significant role in the provision of ecosystem services. There is a uniform definition for biodiversity in general, however, in terms of agro-ecosystems and their services (including biodiversity) many weaknesses can be identified. The objective of this paper is to explore some of these problems with special regard to different definitions and terms and to the farmland ecosystem services. One solution could be to adopt a more complex system which has some ecological and environmental components (air, water and soil pollution) and also takes in to consideration the efficiency of agricultural production.

scholarly journals Agriculture and Supporting Ecosystem Services: A Trade-off Analysis Using Open Data in Brazil

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Ana Paula Dias Turetta ◽  
Bruno Pedrosa ◽  
Luca Eufemia ◽  
Michelle Bonatti ◽  
Stefan Sieber
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Open Data ◽  
Sustainable Land Use ◽  
Production Region ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Agricultural Areas

Open data are important for adding legitimacy and transparency to public sciences. These data have also a potential to be used as a first approach for scientific investigation, such as spatial evaluation of ecosystem services. This paper presents a methodological approach to evaluate the trade-offs between agriculture and supporting ecosystem services based on spatial analysis and open data. The study area is an important agricultural production region in Bahia State, Brazil. The framework was able to establish the spatial interactions between agriculture and ecosystem service provision, while the regional scale was useful in supporting guidelines regarding sustainable land use for agricultural areas.

scholarly journals Experimental evidence for foraminiferal calcification under anoxia

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (14) ◽  
pp. 4029-4038 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. P. Nardelli ◽  
C. Barras ◽  
E. Metzger ◽  
A. Mouret ◽  
H. L. Filipsson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Variability ◽  
Sediment Cores ◽  
Adult Mortality ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
Ample Evidence ◽  
Anoxic Conditions ◽  
Inhibition Of Growth ◽  
Foraminiferal Species ◽  
First Time

Abstract. Benthic foraminiferal tests are widely used for paleoceanographic reconstructions from a range of different environments with varying dissolved oxygen concentrations in the bottom water. There is ample evidence that foraminifera can live in anoxic sediments. For some species, this is explained by a switch to facultative anaerobic metabolism (i.e. denitrification). Here we show for the first time that adult specimens of three benthic foraminiferal species are not only able to survive, but are also able to calcify under anoxic conditions, at various depths in the sediment, and with or without nitrates. In fact, several specimens of Ammonia tepida (1–4%), Bulimina marginata (8–24%) and Cassidulina laevigata (16–23%) were able to calcify at different redox fronts of sediment cores, under laboratory conditions. This demonstrates ongoing metabolic processes, even in micro-environments where denitrification is not possible. Earlier observations suggest that the disappearance of foraminiferal communities after prolonged anoxia is not due to instantaneous or strongly increased adult mortality. Here we show that it cannot be explained by an inhibition of growth through chamber addition either. Our observations of ongoing calcification under anoxic conditions mean that geochemical proxy data obtained from benthic foraminifera in settings experiencing intermittent anoxia have to be reconsidered. The analysis of whole single specimens or of their successive chambers may provide essential information about short-term environmental variability and/or the causes of anoxia.

scholarly journals Key Drivers for Copepod Assemblages in a Eutrophic Coastal Brackish Lake

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neila Annabi-Trabelsi ◽  
Gamal El-Shabrawy ◽  
Mohamed E. Goher ◽  
Madhavapeddi N. V. Subrahmanyam ◽  
Yousef Al-Enezi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nile Delta ◽  
Acartia Tonsa ◽  
Copepod Species ◽  
Indigenous Species ◽  
Coastal Lake ◽  
Brackish Lake ◽  
Identification Of Species ◽  
Key Drivers ◽  
Non Indigenous Species ◽  
First Time

The copepod assemblages and abiotic parameters were investigated at 11 stations in a large coastal lake (Lake Manzalah, Nile Delta) from 2009–2010 in order to verify any impacts of eutrophication and salinity on the copepod species composition. The environmental conditions and the copepod assemblages appeared to have changed in comparison with previous studies, possibly because of increasing eutrophication and invasions of non-indigenous species (NIS). The aim of the present study was the identification of species which can be used as ecological indicators of high trophic status. Among the nine copepod species of Lake Manzalah, Acartia tonsa, Mesocyclops ogunnus, and Apocyclops panamensis were reported for the first time. Acartia tonsa, a well-known NIS for the Mediterranean, numerically dominated the copepod assemblages in some portions of the lake. The distribution of Acanthocyclops trajani and Thermocyclops consimilis was insensible to eutrophication because they can stand high levels of nutrients and hypoxia. Compared with previous reports, the copepod assemblage of Lake Manzalah was richer in species. The invasions of NIS, in addition to the heterogeneous progress of eutrophication in the lake, created an environmental mosaic with many species in total, but with single areas suitable for only a small number of them.

Multitarget geolocation via an agricultural octorotor based on orthographic projection and data association

2017 ◽  
Vol 232 (11) ◽  
pp. 2076-2090 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian A Garcia ◽  
Yunjun Xu
Keyword(s):  
Kalman Filter ◽  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Data Association ◽  
Measurement Model ◽  
Agricultural Fields ◽  
Orthographic Projection ◽  
Hover Flight ◽  
Computationally Intensive ◽  
First Time

In recent years, unmanned aerial vehicles with onboard spectral sensors have been used in detecting diseases in the agricultural fields. Geolocation, i.e. calculating the global coordinate of identified diseased regions based on images taken, is an important step in automating such a scouting operation. In this paper, the problem of geolocating multiple diseased regions in an image is studied. Based on the assumptions of stationary, two-dimensional shallow target plants and hover flight, an orthographic projection-based measurement model is developed. A probabilistic data association method is used to analyze the measurements from different target sources and a Kalman filter is designed to estimate the suspected diseased leaves’ position. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first time a data association technique is used in for locating multiple-diseased plants in agriculture applications. Additionally, the designed Kalman filter is based on conditions pertinent to small crops and is less computationally intensive than the typically used extended Kalman filter. Both simulation and ad hoc experiments are used to validate the proposed multitarget geolocation algorithm.

scholarly journals Undercover speciation of wentletraps (Caenogastropoda: Epitoniidae) in the Southwestern Atlantic

Zootaxa ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 4286 (1) ◽  
pp. 41
Author(s):  
DIEGO G. ZELAYA ◽  
MARINA GÜLLER
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
Intraspecific Variability ◽  
Shell Morphology ◽  
Southwestern Atlantic ◽  
Number Of Species ◽  
Anatomical Characters ◽  
Three New Species ◽  
First Time ◽  
Species Being

Despite being one of the most speciose families, Epitoniidae still remains at present as one of the least understood gastropod families worldwide. This is a consequence of most of the species being only known from shell morphology, added to the wide intraspecific variability of this character and the fact that shell morphology has proven to have frequent examples of parallelisms and convergences among different (unrelated) species. Knowledge of other morphological and anatomical characters in this group is still in its first steps, and such information is currently available for a limited number of species, thus being difficult (when not impossible) to evaluate its taxonomic value. The aim of this study is to re-evaluate the diversity of Epitoniidae occurring in the Atlantic coast of Patagonia. As part of this study, the validity of only four of the six species described / reported from this area could be confirmed: Epitonium georgettinum, E. striatellum, E. fabrizioi and “Cirsotrema” magellanicum. In addition, three new species were recognized and are described herein: Epitonium evanidstriatum, “Cirsotrema” ctenodentatum and “Cirsotrema” strebeli. Information on the shell (including the protoconch), operculum, radula and jaw for these species is here provided, in most cases for the first time. A neotype for Scalaria magellanica is here designated. Furthermore, “Cirsotrema” georgeanum is here proposed as a replacement name for Scalaria fenestrata Strebel, 1908 (not Meneghini in de Stefani, 1875, nor Scalaria fenestrata Wöhrmann, 1889); and that taxon is regarded as a full species, instead of as a synonym of “Cirsotrema” magellanicum, as suggested in some previous publications. This study reveals that the usage of isolated (either morphological or anatomical) characters is usually insufficient for identifying some of the species from Patagonia; however, if these characters are combined, all species may be clearly recognized. 

A place for the dead: the role of human remains in Late Bronze Age Britain

1995 ◽  
Vol 61 ◽  
pp. 245-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Brück
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Identity Continuity ◽  
Refuse Disposal ◽  
First Time ◽  
Burial Rite

The disappearance of an archaeologically visible burial rite at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age has puzzled archaeologists for some years yet has never formed a specific focus of research. This paper aims to look at the problem in detail for the first time. A corpus has been compiled listing sites from which human remains dating to this period have been recovered. The contexts in which these remains are found are documented and discussed; these include, for example, finds from settlements, hoards, and wet places. It is argued that many of the sites do not represent the residues of ‘normal’ mortuary rituals but may instead result from other ritual practices or from refuse disposal activities. It is concluded from contextual patterning in the data that human remains were used in situations where concepts of liminality, identity, continuity, and renewal needed to be highlighted. The potential of human remains for symbolising these themes was drawn upon in activities during which concerns central to Late Bronze Age communities were confronted. The nature of these concerns is discussed in relation to wider developments that occur over the Late Bronze Age. It is argued that the ways in which human remains were deposited were intimately related to the development of new discourses within society as the basis of socio-political power changed from practices surrounding the consumption and exchange of bronze to the control of agricultural production and human and agricultural fertility. The symbolic themes dealt with during the deposition of human remains in specific locations relate to these changing concerns and allowed individuals to situate themselves within a changing society and to negotiate their relationships with others.

scholarly journals Range extension of Mesophyllum erubescens (Foslie) Me. Lemoine (Hapalidiales, Rhodophyta): first report from mesophotic rhodolith beds in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico offshore Louisiana and Texas, including the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary

Check List ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 513-519
Author(s):  
Joseph L. Richards ◽  
Ronald P. Kittle III ◽  
Jaida R. Abshire ◽  
Dijel Fuselier ◽  
William E. Schmidt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sequence Analysis ◽  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Dna Sequence ◽  
Dna Sequence Analysis ◽  
Range Extension ◽  
Lsu Rdna ◽  
First Report ◽  
Anatomical Characters ◽  
Texas Border ◽  
First Time

DNA sequence analysis of plastid-encoded psbA and UPA, mitochondrion-encoded COI, and nuclear-encoded LSU rDNA of rhodolith-forming crustose coralline algal specimens from the northwestern Gulf of Mexico reveals that Mesophyllum erubescens (Foslie) Me. Lemoine is present in mesophotic rhodolith beds offshore Louisiana and Texas at 39–57 m depth. Morpho-anatomical characters viewed with SEM support the identification of these specimens. Mesophyllum erubescens is reported for the first time offshore Louisiana at Ewing Bank, the Louisiana–Texas border at Bright Bank, and Texas in the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary.

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