Role of Forest Management in Environmental Studies with Reference to the Maintaining of Conservation Values

A forest is a type of ecosystem in which there is high density of trees occupying a relatively large area of land. An ecosystem is an ecological unit consisting of a biotic community together with it’s a biotic environment. In the case of forest, tress dominant the biotic landscape, although there are also other plants and animals. There are many types of forest, such as tropical, evergreen, deciduous and dry forest based on the climatic condition and types of trees present. Forests provide innumerable values to people, provide aspects that address both physical needs as well as the internal nature of people. Forest help cleanse the air by intercepting airborne particles, reducing heat, and absorbing such pollutants as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. Trees remove this air pollution by lowering air temperature, through respiration, and by retaining particulates. Erosion control has always started with tree and grass planting projects. Tree roots bind the soil and their leaves break the force of wind and rain on soil. Trees fight soil erosion, conserve rainwater and reduce water runoff and sediment deposit after storms. Herbs, shrubs and trees in the forests hold the topmost layer firmly by their roots. This does not allow natural forces like wind and water to carry away the topmost fertile layer of the soil easily. Hence, Forests prevent soil erosion. With forest conservation, animal species, insects and all the biodiversity of natural areas is protected. It is noteworthy that these beings and the local vegetation exert influence on conservation beyond deforestation and the regional climate, even interfering with the health of the local community. Keywords: Forest, Natural Resources, Implementation, Ecological Balance, Significance, Deforestation, Climatic Condition

Transcriptional Landscape of Ectomycorrhizal Fungi and Their Host Provides Insight into N Uptake from Forest Soil

Although EMF are well known for their role in supporting tree N nutrition, the molecular mechanisms underlying N flux from the soil solution into the host through the ectomycorrhizal pathway remain widely unknown. Furthermore, ammonium and nitrate availability in the soil solution is subject to frequent oscillations that create a dynamic environment for the tree roots and associated microbes during N acquisition.

Lupemban

The Lupemban is an industry of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) that is found across the Congo Basin and on its plateau margins in central Africa. It takes its name from the site of Lupemba that was discovered in 1944 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC, then the Belgian Congo). The Lupemban’s distinctive toolkit of elongated lanceolate bifaces, core-axes, points, blades, and other small tools coincides with the equatorial forest belt and is suitable for constructing hafted implements, which has led to speculation it was a special and specific prehistoric adaptation to rainforest foraging. Although poorly dated across most of its geographic range, radiometric dates for the Lupemban at Twin Rivers (Zambia) show it is at least ~265 ka years old, placing it among the oldest known expressions of the regional MSA. As such, the Lupemban bears on 21st-century debates about the evolution of complex cognitive abilities and behaviors that characterize the emergence of Homo sapiens at or before 300 ka bp. In spite of the Lupemban’s potential importance for understanding the evolution of technology, human–environment interactions, and cognition in early Homo sapiens, the industry remains enigmatic and poorly understood. Logistical, ecological, and political challenges continue to impede fieldwork in central Africa. Moreover, at sites including Gombe Point (DRC), severe soil bioturbation by tree roots has caused the vertical displacement of buried artifacts, which corrupts the basic integrity of stratigraphic sequences. This problem is known to be widespread and means that after 100 years of research, central Africa still lacks a refined Stone Age cultural sequence. Consequently, very little is known about spatiotemporal variability within the Lupemban, or its specific environmental or cultural adaptations. At the site of Kalambo Falls (Zambia), the industry is found in secondary but stratified context, which, as of the early 21st century, offers the best glimpse into Lupemban technology and its potential evolutionary significance.

Ground penetrating radar investigations at the Lake Condah Mission Cemetery: Locating unmarked graves in areas with extensive subsurface disturbance

Ground penetrating radar (GPR) was used to non-invasively map the location of unmarkedgraves within the Lake Condah Mission Cemetery in western Victoria as a means of siting future interments. This cemetery was associated with the former Lake Condah Mission (established in 1869) and continues to be an important site for local Indigenous people. It is anecdotally thought to contain more than 100 graves however only 26 are currently marked. The GPR survey identified an additional 14 probable unmarked graves as well as 49 other areas that may contain one or more unmarked burials. The extensive subsurface disturbance present at the site and the presence of many extant tree roots made the effective interpretation of the GPR data difficult. Despite this, it was still possible to delineate areas where no unmarked graves are present. This is an important outcome for managing the cultural heritage of the cemetery because it identifies areas where new graves can be emplaced in a culturally appropriate fashion. This demonstrates the utility of GPR as a means of effectively managing heritage sites containing unmarked graves, even when substantial subsurface disturbance is present.

Micromechanical study of potential scale effects in small-scale modelling of sinker tree roots

When testing an 1:N geotechnical structure in the centrifuge, it is desirable to choose a large scale factor (N) that can fit the small-scale model in a model container and avoid unwanted boundary effects, however, this in turn may cause scale effects when the structure is overscaled. This is more significant when it comes to small-scale modelling of sinker root-soil interaction, where root-particle size ratio is much lower. In this study the Distinct Element Method (DEM) is used to investigate this problem. The sinker root of a model root system under axial loading was analysed, with both upward and downward behaviour compared with the Finite Element Method (FEM), where the soil is modelled as a continuum in which case particle-size effects are not taken into consideration. Based on the scaling law, with the same prototype scale and particle size distribution, different scale factors/g-levels were applied to quantify effects of the ratio of root diameter (𝑑𝑟) to mean particle size (𝐷50) on the root rootsoil interaction.

Decomposition of Fine Roots and Aboveground Agroforestry Litter as Plant-soil Feedback After Volcanic Ash Deposition

Background and PurposeAbove- and belowground organic inputs feed decomposer communities in the soil enhancing soil organic matter (Corg) formation, depending on the vegetation, soil, contextual factors and human management of (agro)ecosystems. Plant-soil feedback in volcanic ash rapidly increases Corg during transformation to Andisols. We quantified fine root turnover in agroforestry systems, including the ash-adapted native tree Parasponia rigida, as part of the C accumulation process. MethodsFine root (<2 mm) decomposition was quantified with a total of 1440 litterbag samples, testing the effects of six tree species (Coffea canephora, Persea americana, Durio zibethinus, Gliricidia sepium, Falcataria moluccana and Parasponia rigida), three distances to the nearest coffee trees, two seasons (rainy and dry), two sites (with and without recent ash deposits), four time intervals (2, 4, 6 and 8 weeks) and five replicates. Soil temperature around the litterbags was used to derive equivalent decomposition rates at 20oC. The ratio of lignin plus phenolics over nitrogen was used as main litter quality indicator.ResultsDecomposition of fine tree roots was up to three times faster than that of aboveground litter with the same quality index measured in the same habitat. Root decomposition was slower in topsoils with recent volcanic ash, with a mean residence time extended by, on average, two weeks. Decomposition of roots of the ash-adapted native tree Parasponia rigida was especially rapid. ConclusionsFine root turnover contributes to the Corg accumulation that turns low-C volcanic ash into high-carbon andic soil and has relatively short necromass residence times.

Non-flooded riparian Amazon trees are a regionally significant methane source

Inundation-adapted trees were recently established as the dominant egress pathway for soil-produced methane (CH 4 ) in forested wetlands. This raises the possibility that CH 4 produced deep within the soil column can vent to the atmosphere via tree roots even when the water table (WT) is below the surface. If correct, this would challenge modelling efforts where inundation often defines the spatial extent of ecosystem CH 4 production and emission. Here, we examine CH 4 exchange on tree, soil and aquatic surfaces in forest experiencing a dynamic WT at three floodplain locations spanning the Amazon basin at four hydrologically distinct times from April 2017 to January 2018. Tree stem emissions were orders of magnitude larger than from soil or aquatic surface emissions and exhibited a strong relationship to WT depth below the surface (less than 0). We estimate that Amazon riparian floodplain margins with a WT < 0 contribute 2.2–3.6 Tg CH 4 yr −1 to the atmosphere in addition to inundated tree emissions of approximately 12.7–21.1 Tg CH 4 yr −1 . Applying our approach to all tropical wetland broad-leaf trees yields an estimated non-flooded floodplain tree flux of 6.4 Tg CH 4 yr −1 which, at 17% of the flooded tropical tree flux of approximately 37.1 Tg CH 4 yr −1 , demonstrates the importance of these ecosystems in extending the effective CH 4 emitting area beyond flooded lands. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Rising methane: is warming feeding warming? (part 2)'.

Phytochemical composition and biological screening of two Lophophytum species

Lophophytum species are holoparasites that grow on tree roots. The objectives of the work were to explore the chemical composition of the tubers of two Lophophytum species and to analyze the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antilithiatic activity of their extracts using in vitro methods. The chemical composition was determined by histochemical, phytochemical and TLC tests. In addition, the profile of phenolic compounds was determined by HPLC-MS. The presence of secondary metabolites of recognized activity was demonstrated. The results of the HPLC-MS/MS allowed the tentative identification of catechin, luteolin and glycosides of eriodictyol, naringenin and luteolin in the extract of Lophophytum leandri and eriodictyol, naringenin, luteolin and their glycosylated derivatives in Lophophytum mirabile. The extracts showed promising antioxidant (DPPH, ABTS and β-carotene-linoleic acid), anti-inflammatory (inhibition of 5-LOX) and anti-urolytic (by bioautographic TLC) activity. It is noteworthy that these are the first results of the phytochemical composition and biological activity of L. mirabile. However, in vivo studies are required to corroborate these activities.

Modelling the functional dependency between root and shoot compartments to predict the impact of the environment on the architecture of the whole plant. Methodology for model fitting on simulated data using Deep Learning techniques

Tree structural and biomass growth studies mainly focus on the shoot compartment. Tree roots usually have to be taken apart due to the difficulties involved in measuring and observing this compartment, particularly root growth. In the context of climate change, the study of tree structural plasticity has become crucial and both shoot and root systems need to be considered simultaneously as they play a joint role in adapting traits to climate change (water availability for roots and light or carbon availability for shoots). We developed a botanically accurate whole-plant model and its simulator (RoCoCau) with a linkable external module (TOY) to represent shoot and root compartment dependencies and hence tree structural plasticity in different air and soil environments. This paper describes a new deep neural network calibration trained on simulated datasets computed from a set of more than 360 000 random TOY parameter values and random climate values. These datasets were used for training and for validation. For this purpose, we chose Voxnet, a convolutional neural network designed to classify 3D objects represented as a voxelized scene. We recommend further improvements for Voxnet inputs, outputs, and training. We were able to teach the network to predict the value of environment data well (mean error &lt; 2%), and to predict the value of TOY parameters for plants under water stress conditions (mean error &lt; 5% for all parameters), and for any environmental growing conditions (mean error &lt; 20%).

First Report of Sea buckthorn Stem Wilt Caused by Fusarium proliferatum in Liaoning, China

Sea buckthorn（Hippophae rhamnoides L.） is a flowering shrub native to cold-temperate regions of Eurasia, which is also valuable for its berries and leaves containing various vitamins and flavonoids (Pundir et al. 2021). In late June 2020, high mortality (more than 70%) was observed in sea buckthorn in a 1.6-ha seedling nursery in Chaoyang City, Liaoning province, China, where 16 Chinese and Russian cultivars (cv.) had been planted since 2014 (cv. Shenqiuhong, eshi01 through eshi15). The mortality of two introduced sea buckthorn varieties (eshi02, eshi04) was 100% (125 trees died in total). The symptoms include massive drooping leaves and dried-up stems on 6-year-old infected trees. Pieces of tree roots and stems with brown discoloration in the xylem vessels were selected. Small tissue fragments (0.2-0.5 cm) were surface disinfested (3 min in 75% ethanol, rinsed with sterile distilled water), air-dried, and placed on potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium for 5 days at 25°C in the dark. A fungus was consistently isolated from both diseased roots and stems tissues, and a representative isolate (LC-1) was harvested. Genomic DNA was extracted for amplification and sequencing of the partial translation elongation factor-1α (EF1 and EF2 primers, accession Nos. MZ669853) (O’Donnell et al. 1998) and RNA polymerase II second largest subunit (RPB2) (7cf/11aR primers, accession Nos. MZ669854) (O’Donnell et al. 2007). The sequences were further analyzed at the Fusarium MLST (https://fusarium.mycobank.org/) for identity confirmation, and showed 99.8% (over 95.2% query coverage) and 96.4% (over 88.4% query coverage) similarity to Fusarium proliferatum (NRRL 13584, 13591). Isolates on Spezieller Nahrstoffarmer agar (SNA) produced abundant aerial white mycelia and yellow pigmentation. The 30 macroconidia measured ranged from 28.5 - 62.5 × 3.2 – 5.4 μm, were thin, slender, with 3-5 septa. The aseptate microconidia ranged from 4.7 – 13.6 × 2.2 – 4.3 μm (n = 30). Pathogenicity tests were performed on healthy, potted 1-year-old sea buckthorn seedlings (cv. eshi05) using two isolates in a greenhouse at 25 °C, 80% relative humidity, and 12-hour light/dark photoperiod. Ten potted seedlings were inoculated on the stems by placing a 5-mm-diameter mycelial plug (5-day-old PDA cultures for each isolate) into the surface of a wound created with a needle, and the inoculation sites were covered with Parafilm to maintain moisture. Ten seedlings were inoculated with PDA plugs as controls. Six to ten days after inoculation, color of the leaves in the middle of the stems was variegated, and then dark necrotic lesions on leaf margins were observed. Three weeks after inoculation, 80% of inoculated stems were wilted, while control plants remained asymptomatic. The pathogen was consistently re-isolated and the recovered isolates were identified as F. proliferatum by amplifying the EF-1α gene. The typical symptoms on inoculated plants were dark to brown necrotic lesions on chlorotic leaves initially, and black withered stems in the terminal stage, similar to those observed on sea buckthorn trees infected with Fusarium sporotrichioides in Gansu and Heilongjiang provinces (Song et al. 2010; Xia et al. 2021). To our knowledge, this is the first report of sea buckthorn stem wilt caused by F. proliferatum in Liaoning province, China, which will be beneficial for expanding knowledge of Fusarium disease in sea buckthorn and provide more information for sustainable disease management in sea buckthorn.