Chewing insects, pollinators, and predators on Acacia auriculiformis A. Cunn. ex Beth (Fabales: Fabaceae) plants fertilized with dehydrated sewage sludge

Fertilization with dehydrated sewage sludge can speed up the recovery process of degraded areas due to nutrients concentration, favoring the development of pioneer plants such as Acacia auriculiformis A. Cunn. ex Beth (Fabales: Fabaceae) and the emergence of insects. This study aimed the evaluation of chewing, pollinating insects, predators, their ecological indices and relationships on A. auriculiformis plants fertilized with dehydrated sewage sludge. The experimental design was completely randomized with two treatments (with and without dehydrated sewage sludge) and 24 repetitions. The prevalence of chewing insects Parasyphraea sp. (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), Nasutitermes sp. (Blattodea: Termitidae), and Tropidacris collaris (Stoll, 1813) (Orthoptera: Romaleidae), defoliation, and ecological indices of abundance of Coleoptera and Orthoptera were observed on fertilized A. auriculiformis. Acacia auriculiformis plants, with a superior number of branches/tree, revealed greater abundance of Coleoptera and Orthoptera, species richness of pollinating insects, defoliation, numbers of Parasyphraea sp. and T. collaris. The ones with larger leaves/branches displayed greater abundance of species richness of Coleoptera and Diabrotica speciosa (Germar, 1824) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae). Therefore, the use of A. auriculiformis plants, fertilized with dehydrated sewage sludge, is promising in the recovery of degraded areas due to the ecological indices increase of chewing and pollinators insects and spiders in the analyzed area.

Seasonal mite population distribution on Caryocar brasiliense trees in the Cerrado domain

Caryocar brasiliense Camb. (Malpighiales: Caryocaraceae) trees have a wide distribution in the Cerrado, and it is protected by federal laws. The need to monitor and understand pest damage to crops and forests is a major motivation for the study of population distribution. The mites (Acari) population distributions on C. brasiliense are unknown. We studied seasonal mite population distribution and their ecological indices on C. brasiliense trees in Cerrado areas during three years. Greatest number of Agistemus sp. (Stigmaeidae), Histiostoma sp. (Histiostomidae), Proctolaelaps sp. (Ascidae), and diversity and species richness on leaves of C. brasiliense occurred in the autumn; Tetranychus sp.1 (Tetranychidae) on leaves in the autumn and winter; Histiostoma sp., and Proctolaelaps sp. in fruits in the summer. No significant effect of season was observed in the abundance of Eutetranychus sp., Tetranychus sp.2 (Tetranychidae) and Acaridae. The populations of Acaridae, Eutetranychus sp., Proctolaelaps sp. and Tetranychus sp.1 negatively correlated with temperature. Proctolaelaps sp. and Tetranychus sp.1 correlated negatively with rainfall and Eutetranychus sp. and Proctolaelaps sp. positively with sunlight. The period with low rainfall and relative humidity increases the phytophagous mites and their predators, especially Agistemus sp.. The Tetranychus sp. and Histiostoma sp. species may become pests in C. brasiliense in the Cerrado domain.

Decreasing NOx Emissions by Way of the Staged Fuel Combustion

The purpose of this scientific paper was to analyze the mathematical model built for the staged arrangement of the fuel combustion system and calculate the formation of nitrogen oxides throughout the boiler furnace height for the different distributions of thermal loadings along the full vertical extent of the combustion chamber. The obtained results enable the determination of the overall amount of nitrogen oxides formed in the boiler and it allows us to provide appropriate ecological indices for the boiler when regulating the air concentration in the burner rows. In practice, to suppress the formation of nitrogen oxides we often use such basic methods as low-toxic burners, staged fuel combustion, flue gas recirculation, etc. The analysis of the computations done allows us to draw a conclusion that the operation of the boiler with ecological indices that satisfy standard values of the European Directive 2010/75/EU is only possible for the load below 40 %. After reconstruction of the burner system and adjustment of the air supply system with the observation of above ecological norms the boiler power can be increased up to 80 % using the staged fuel burning with the ensurance of environmental performances during its operation. Computational and experimental data errors varied in the range of 8 % to 12 %. With the increase in the overall chemical incomplete combustion by 40 % to 60 % (q3) these losses are compensated by a decrease in absolute losses due to the boiler aggregate load and the losses through external walls (q5) due to an increase in the boiler power.

Species diversity of seagrass-associated bivalves as an ecological parameter to support seagrass conservation along with the Coastal Waters of South Lombok, Indonesia

Syukur A, Zulkifli L, Idrus AA, Hidayati BN. 2021. Species diversity of seagrass-associated bivalves as an ecological parameter to support seagrass conservation along with the Coastal Waters of South Lombok, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 22: 5133-5144. Seagrass has a role in supporting the survival of marine life, such as bivalves. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between bivalve species diversity as a parameter for seagrass conservation. The research approach was through observation and data collection for seagrass and bivalves using quadrant and transect methods—Analysis of the data through descriptive statistical analysis, ANOVA, and Pearson correlation. The number of seagrass species in the six research sites was nine. Furthermore, the species composition of bivalves consisted of 11 families comprising 47 species. The ANOVA results showed a significant difference based on the F-count value, higher than the F-table value of the three ecological indices (H', E, and Ki). Two ecological indices, namely H' and Ki, have r values ??less than 0.5 for all environmental parameters (temperature, brightness, pH, salinity, DO, phosphate, and nitrate) and show no significant correlation. However, the E index value has an r value greater than 0.5 for nitrate, salinity DO, and phosphate. The highest significance value of the four environmental variables is for nitrate, with an r = 0.875. The conclusion is that the richness and abundance of seagrass-associated bivalves in the study area are predetermined by the characteristics of the seagrass environment, especially the substrate. Secondly, seagrasses could create a suitable substrate for bivalves to survive. Therefore, the indicator of the presence of associated Bivalvia species can be a parameter for local scale seagrass conservation at the study site.

Water Quality and Conservation Status of Fish Fauna of Main Outfall Drain, Al-Diwaniya City, Iraq

Freshwater fish diversity, abundance, the ecological indices, and water quality from Main Outfall Drain (MOD) in Al-Diwaniya City/middle Iraq were studied monthly from January to December 2017 in two sites. The present study has shown that the third river (MOD) supported 15 fish species belonging to 7 families. As far as biodiversity status in fish community (IUCN-2019) is concerned, out of 15 species, eleven fish species are categorized into Lower risk least concern (LC or LR/lc), four Vulnerable (VU). Eight species were sensitive to salinity; seven species were tolerance. The results were concluded that the properties of water were tolerable for the fish community. Ultimately, it can be concluded that the sector of MOD supported the fish community. But it needs constant monitoring for the conserve and development of the diversity and the case of the healthy fish.

Constructing ecological indices for urban environments using species distribution models

In an increasingly urbanized world, there is the need for a framework to assess ecological conditions in these anthropogenically dominated environments. Using species observations from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), along with remotely sensed environmental layers, we used MaxEnt to construct species distribution models (SDMs) of native and non-native species in Los Angeles. 25 native and non-native Indicator species were selected based on the sensitivities of their SDM, as measured by the Symmetric Extremal Dependence Index (SEDI), to environmental gradients. These SDMs were summarized to produce ecological indices of native and non-native biodiversity in Los Angeles. We found native indicator species to have a greater sensitivity to environmental conditions than their non-native counterparts, with the mean SEDI score of native and non-native species MaxEnt models being 0.72 and 0.71 respectively. While both sets of species were sensitive to land use categories and housing density, native species were more sensitive to natural landscape variables while non-native ones were more sensitive to measures of water and soil contamination. Using random forest modeling we also found our native index could be more reliably predicted, given environmental conditions, than its non-native counterpart. The mean Pearson correlation between actual and predicted index values were 0.86 and 0.84 for native and non-native species. From these results we conclude that using SDMs to predict the biodiversity of environmental species is a suitable approach towards evaluating ecological conditions in urban environments, with the environmental sensitivity of native SDMs outperforming non-native ones.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE STRUCTURE AND ECOLOGICAL INDICES OF COLEOPTERS POPULATIONS IN THE WALNUT ORCHARDS

The observations were made during 2019 and 2020 in a walnut orchard from Sârca farm, in Iasi County. The material was collected using Barber-type soil traps during the two years of research, at a time interval between 10 and 14 days from May to August inclusive, thus integrating a number of 10 or 8 harvests in 2019 and 2020. The biological material collected was cleaned of plant debris and then prepared for identification, at the level of order, and for the specimens of beetles we made the determination up to the species level. From the analysis of the collected material it results that the collected specimens belong to the Hexapoda Class, the Coleoptera order. The species of coleopters insects collected belong to the species: Anysodactilus binotatus, Harpalus pubescens, Otiorrhynchus pinastri, Dermestes laniarius, Harpalus tenebrosus, Amara crenata, Paramalus paralelipipedus, Colodera aethiops, Phyllotreta attra, Harpalus calceatus