scholarly journals Analysis of School Plant Management Practices towards Environmental Aesthetics on State Universities in South East Geo-Political Zone of Nigeria

Botany ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 86 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana Lepofsky ◽  
Ken Lertzman

Ethnographic literature documents the pervasiveness of plant-management strategies, such as prescribed burning and other kinds of cultivation, among Northwest Peoples after European contact. In contrast, definitive evidence of precontact plant management has been elusive. Documenting the nature and extent of precontact plant-management strategies has relevance to historians, archaeologists, managers, conservationists, forest ecologists, and First Nations. In this paper, we summarize the various lines of evidence that have been, or could be, used to document ancient cultivation in the northwest of North America. We organize this discussion by the ecological consequences of ancient plant-management practices and their documented or potential visibility in the paleo-, neo-ecological, and archaeological records. Our review demonstrates that while finding evidence of ancient plant management can be difficult, such evidence can be found when innovative research methods are applied. Further, when various independent lines of evidence are compiled, reconstructions of past plant-management strategies are strengthened considerably.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Bahr ◽  
Dominik Schmidt ◽  
Katrin Kahlen

Sunburn in grapevine berries is known as a recurring disorder causing severe yield losses and a decline in berry quality. The transition from healthy to sunburnt along a temporal trajectory is not fully understood. It is driven by light-boosted local heat impact and modulated by, e.g., past environments of the berry and its developmental state. Events of berry sunburn are often associated with heatwaves, indicating a link to climate change. In addition, the sensitivity of grapevine architecture to changing environmental condition indicates an urgent need to investigate and adapt mitigation strategies of berry sunburn in future vineyards. In this perspective, we want to identify missing links in predicting berry sunburn in vineyards and propose a modeling framework that may help us to investigate berry sunburn in future vineyards. For this, we propose to address open issues in both developing a model of berry sunburn and considering dynamic canopy growth, and canopy interaction with the environment and plant management such as shoot positioning or leaf removal. Because local environmental conditions drive sunburn, we aim at showing that identifying sunburn-reducing strategies in a vineyard under future environmental conditions can be supported by a modeling approach that integrates effects of management practices over time and takes grapevine architecture explicitly into account. We argue that functional-structural plant models may address such complex tasks. Once open issues are solved, they might be a promising tool to advance our knowledge on reducing risks of berry sunburn in silico.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uzair Aslam Bhatti ◽  
Zhaoyuan Yu ◽  
Linwang Yuan ◽  
Luo Wen ◽  
Saqib Ali Nawaz ◽  
...  

Abstract Roads have a great impact on the structure and functioning of the diversity pattern in an ecological environment and play the role of altering biotic and abiotic factors. Clusters of plants grow along the roadside due to the interplay between the arrival of propagule and seedling establishment, which depends on the road’s specifications, land pattern, and road administration and protection practices. It is very important to study the diversity pattern in a metropolitan city to improve the ecological environment. Karachi is one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing metropolitan cities; however, little is known about the urban forest of the area. In Karachi, which is in the province of Sindh, Pakistan, roadside trees along various road types (e.g., wide, medium and narrow roads) have been studied. Based on a field study, various measures of diversity were utilized to investigate the diversity of tree species on different types of paths. A total of 180 plots, divided into three primary road groups, were surveyed. The highest quantity of tree biomass per unit area was found on wide roads, followed by medium roads. On narrow roads, the least biomass was detected. A single species or a limited number of species dominated the diversity of species. Conocarpus erectus was the most dominant non-native species along all types of roads, followed by the species Guaiacum officinale. A total of 76 species (32 non-native and 44 native) that were selectively spread along the roadsides of the city were studied. There was a significant difference in phylogenetic diversity (PD), phylogenetic mean pairwise distance (MPD) and phylogenetic mean nearest taxon distance (MNTD) between wide, medium, and narrow roads. Management practices have a significant positive correlation with diversity indices. Our study identified patterns of diversity in roadside trees in Karachi. It provided the basis for future plant conservation planning, such as the conservation of plant species, the maintenance of plant habitats, and the coordination of plant management in Karachi.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Molly Carney ◽  
Shannon Tushingham ◽  
Tara McLaughlin ◽  
Jade d'Alpoim Guedes

One of the greatest archaeological enigmas is in understanding the role of decision-making, intentionality and interventions in plant life cycles by foraging peoples in transitions to and from low-level food production practices. We bring together archaeological, palaeoclimatological and botanical data to explore relationships over the past 4000 years between people and camas ( Camassia quamash ), a perennial geophyte with an edible bulb common across the North American Pacific Northwest. In this region throughout the late Holocene, people began experimenting with selective harvesting practices through targeting sexually mature bulbs by 3500 cal BP, with bulb harvesting practices akin to ethnographic descriptions firmly established by 1000 cal BP. While we find no evidence that such interventions lead to a selection for larger bulbs or a reduction in time to maturity, archaeological bulbs do exhibit several other domestication syndrome traits. This establishes considerable continuity to human intervention into camas life cycles, but these dynamic relationships did not result in unequivocal morphological indications of domestication. This approach to tracking forager plant management practices offers an alternative explanatory framework to conventional management studies, supplements oral histories of Indigenous traditional resource management and can be applied to other vegetatively propagated species.


Author(s):  
M. R. Yadav ◽  
Rakesh Kumar ◽  
C. M. Parihar ◽  
R. K. Yadav ◽  
S.L. Jat ◽  
...  

Nitrogen (N) is the most critical externally added input for any crop production system. The half of the global population directly or indirectly depends on nitrogenous fertilizers for food supply. Today, Rice, wheat, and maize are consuming more than 90% of total nitrogenous fertilizer used in cereals. Underuse of nitrogen is associated with lower crop production while overuse leads to several soil and environmental related consequences. Therefore, response to applied nitrogen and its use efficiency have to be monitored properly for obtaining the maximum potential and sustainable yield. Efficiency of applied nitrogenous fertilizers is very low due to its various losses i.e. volatilization, leaching, surface runoff and denitrification from soil-plant system. Therefore, the proper understanding of advanced soil and plant management practices which helps in enhancement of nitrogen recovery efficiency is one of the key factors to enhance crop output, decreasing cost of cultivation, and to maintain environmental quality which ultimately adds towards the goal of achieving long term sustainable production system. In this review, an attempt has been made summarize the locally as well as scientific soil and crop management technologies used for improving use efficiency of applied N. This paper also discusses nitrogen cycling in soil-plant systems, various N losses pathways, present status and most possible management options at the farm level for enhancing nitrogen use in crop production system.


Author(s):  
Julian B. Speck ◽  
Abdolreza T. M. Iravani

The application of risk-based life management practices has generated considerable interest in industry. Plant safety and availability can be demonstrably improved through the application of risk-based methods alongside good plant management practices. The needs for and the experience of risk-based plant life management however, vary greatly across industry sectors. The principles of risk-based methods are documented and many risk-based techniques are widely available, but the practical interpretation of the principles and the use of the most appropriate techniques are subjects of great debate. This paper will identify technical and organisational requirements to implement risk-based methods. As part of this paper, a questionnaire survey has been carried out among companies to gain better understanding of the reality of plant life management and the needs of plant operators. This survey indicates that the benefits of risk-based methods for inspection (RBI) and maintenance (RBM) optimisation are recognised by different industrial sectors. There appears to be a lack of established and documented uniform RBI/RBM policy or guidance for application throughout the industry sectors. There is also an indication of insufficient resources and training to implement risk-based methods. Development of risk-based techniques by a competent team and an integrated user-friendly software based on a sound methodology remain as key issues. A case study is described of the application of RBI to an oil refinery process unit.


Quaternary ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 8
Author(s):  
Laura P. Furquim ◽  
Jennifer Watling ◽  
Lautaro M. Hilbert ◽  
Myrtle P. Shock ◽  
Gabriela Prestes-Carneiro ◽  
...  

Recent advances in the archaeology of lowland South America are furthering our understanding of the Holocene development of plant cultivation and domestication, cultural niche construction, and relationships between environmental changes and cultural strategies of food production. This article offers new data on plant and landscape management and mobility in Southwestern Amazonia during a period of environmental change at the Middle to Late Holocene transition, based on archaeobotanical analysis of the Monte Castelo shellmound, occupied between 6000 and 650 yr BP and located in a modern, seasonally flooded savanna–forest mosaic. Through diachronic comparisons of carbonized plant remains, phytoliths, and starch grains, we construct an ecology of resource use and explore its implications for the long-term history of landscape formation, resource management practices, and mobility. We show how, despite important changes visible in the archaeological record of the shellmound during this period, there persisted an ancient, local, and resilient pattern of plant management which implies a degree of stability in both subsistence and settlement patterns over the last 6000 years. This pattern is characterized by management practices that relied on increasingly diversified, rather than intensive, food production systems. Our findings have important implications in debates regarding the history of settlement permanence, population growth, and carrying capacity in the Amazon basin.


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