Genomic signatures of desert adaptation at gene-rich regions in zebu cattle from the African drylands

Sudan, the largest country in Africa, acts as a corridor between North and sub-Saharan Africa along the river Niles. It comprises warm arid and semi-arid grazing lands, and it is home to the second-largest African population of indigenous livestock. Indigenous Sudanese cattle are mainly indicine/zebu (humped) type. They thrive in the harshest dryland environments characterised by high temperatures, long seasonal dry periods, nutritional shortages, and vector diseases challenges. We investigated genome diversity in six indigenous African zebu breeds sampled in Sudan (Aryashai, Baggara, Butana, Fulani, Gash, and Kenana). We adopted three genomic scan approaches to identify candidate selective sweeps regions (ZHp, FST, XP-EHH). We identified a set of gene-rich selective sweep regions shared across African and Asian zebu or unique to Sudanese zebu. In particular, African and Asian zebu candidate gene-rich regions are detected on chromosomes 2, 5 and 7. They include genes involved in immune response, body size and conformation, and stress response to heat. In addition, a 250 kb selective sweep on chromosome 16 was detected exclusively in five Sudanese zebu populations. This region spans seven genes, including PLCH2, PEX10, PRKCZ and SKI, which are involved in alternative adaptive metabolic strategies of insulin signalling, glucose homeostasis, and fat metabolism. Together, these genes may contribute to the zebu cattle resilience to heat, nutritional and water shortages. Our results highlight the putative importance of selection at gene-rich genome regions, which might be under a common regulatory genetic control, as an evolutionary mechanism for rapid adaptation to the complexity of environmental challenges.

Community Participation in the Reduction of Land Degradation: The Case Study of Shebel Berenta District, Amhara National Region State

Shebel Berenta district is one of the highland areas of Ethiopia highly prone to land degradation and drought by the report of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, (OCHA). Assessment of community participation to combat land degradation was the main objective of this study. Mixed research approach with concurrent triangulation design was followed. The target kebeles and the number of respondents were selected purposively. The sample size was found to be 368, which was determined by the Yemaneh (1967) formula and addressed through geographical listing method. Primary data was collected through Questionnaire, interview and FGD; whereas secondary data was also gained from researches, reports and different documents. The quantitative data was analyzed descriptively, and the qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analysis. The result shows that the trend of community participation is found to be decreasing/passive and dominated by the top down or planner centered approach of community participation as it was supported by 72.4% and 86.3% out of 149 and 219 total respondents from vulnerable and less vulnerable kebeles respectively. Incentives to inspire community participation are low and not adequate and resulted in the lack of willingness of the community. Lack of awareness, expansion of open grazing lands, lack of commitment from the people and government side, lack of consistency of Sustainable Land Management Practices (SLM), geographical barriers and others are the observed challenges of CP in the area.

Reindeer Pastoralism

The chapter focuses on intensive reindeer husbandry or reindeer pastoralism, which was a tenure system that emerged in the early modern period. Reindeer pastoralism and grazing are deeply interconnected and we therefore illuminate the ecological settings for reindeer grazing. A large part of the debate about governing common-pool resources has dealt with pastoralists and their grazing lands. Important features of reindeer pastoralism are described, including a discussion about how the number of tame reindeer developed in early modern era. The chapter ends with a portrayal of and a discussion about individual households’ rights to use certain areas for grazing, chiefly based on descriptions of contemporary court rulings from the local court in Jokkmokk. We show how a common-property regime evolved.

The grass versus the people: sacred roots of environmental conflict in the Chilonga communal lands in Zimbabwe

This article analyses a conflict that erupted in 2021 between the government of Zimbabwe and the people of Chilonga in the south of the country over the expropriation of their ancestral for the production of lucerne grass. The people of Chilonga resisted being displaced from land to which they are deeply attached and have a sacred connection. This conflict provides a rare opportunity to analyze the often marginalized, muted and misunderstood sacred roots of the environmental conflict that shape collective agency. The article uses the concepts of emplacement and disemplacement to comprehend the deeper and more intangible impacts of displacing people from their grazing lands, sources of water and traditional herbs and medicines, and sacred sites—natural resources they claim to be sacred. Thus, while disemplacement has been used to explain why people find themselves moving, the article uses it to show the opposite: why they resist moving and demonstrate the not easily measured losses upon which resistance to moving hinges.

Optimizing Beef Cow-Calf Grazing across Missouri with an Emphasis on Protecting Ecosystem Services

Soil health is an emerging paradigm for which much research in row crop agriculture has been undertaken. Research involving grazing lands and soil health has not been as active, a feature partially attributed to (i) greater erosional rates in cropland, (ii) loss of soil organic matter and reduced soil structure attributed to annual tillage practices, (iii) cash flow from cropland is easier to visualize than the value-added nature of grazing lands, and (iv) there exists more competitive grant funding sources for croplands. Grazing lands do require soil quality augmentation and investment in soil health to optimize their ecosystem services potential. This manuscript, with an emphasis on beef cattle grazing in the central USA, attempts to survey the literature to (i) identify the influence of grazing on important ecosystem services provided by Mollisols and Alfisols, (ii) develop a listing of soil indicators that may be selected to quantify and credential soil quality, and (iii) develop guidelines that align soil indicators and changes in grazing management to support the restoration of ecosystem services.

PSXI-22 Study of biosorption mechanisms of movable forms of lead by soil isolates of the genus Bacillus in experiments in vitro

The research was supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in accordance with the state assignment for Ural State Mining University No. 0833-2020-0008 ‘Development and environmental and economic substantiation of the technology for reclamation of land disturbed by the mining and metallurgical complex based on reclamation materials and fertilizers of a new type’. We obtain the scientific results by using funds of the Center for the collective use of scientific equipment of the Federal Scientific Center of biological systems and agricultural technologies of RAS as well (No Ross RU.0001.21 PF59, the Unified Russian Register of Centers for Collective Use - http://www.ckp-rf.ru/ckp/77384).The search for natural bioremediators to restore crop and grazing lands in conditions of the increased anthropogenic load is a relevant and promisingly significant area of research. Thus, we were tasked to assess the prospect of using the physiological and adaptive characteristics of microorganisms of the genus Bacillus as an active biosorbent of movable forms of lead from the substrate on the in vitro model.Soil isolates of microorganisms of the genus Bacillus extracted from samples from areas with increased lead levels were used to achieve our aim. Pb(NO3)2 solutions in the concentration range from 1 to 0.063M were used as the factor regulating the growth. Methods used in the work were: the method of agar basins, the nephelometric method, atomic-absorption spectroscopy, and atomic force microscopy. B. subtilis and B. cereus were isolated from soil samples. The maximum resistance to different concentrations of Pb(NO3)2 was revealed for B. subtilis. The presence of lead cations in the nutrient substrate significantly increased the population density to 26.0%. At the same time, the percentage of lead sorption in the initial stage of the stationary growth phase was 65.3% with the maximum localization on the surface structures of the cell membrane.

Weed Management during Pasture Establishment

This publication details techniques for chemical weed control prior to and during pasture establishment and is intended for county Extension faculty as well as owners and managers of grazing lands. Written by Brent Sellers, Pratap Devkota, Joao Vendramini, and Marcelo Wallau, and published by the UF/IFAS Agronomy Department, revised August 2021.

COMPARISON ON VEGETATION COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE OF EXCLOSURES VS. OPEN GRAZING LANDS IN NORTHERN ETHIOPIA

This study was conducted with the objectives of study investigates, compare, and try to describe the floristic composition and structure of the vegetation of exclosures and open grazing lands. A stratified preferential sampling design technique with flexible systematic model was used for data collection. Data on vegetation and environmental parameters were gathered from 120 quadrants (90 from restorations or exclosures of different ages and 30 from adjacent open grazing lands), of 20 m x 20 m (400 m2) size. Species richness and the presence or absence of herbaceous plants were recorded like soil samples in a 2 m x 2 m (4 m2) subplot inside each main quadrant from five points, one at each corner and one at the center. A total of 142 plant species belonging to 118 genera and 52 families were identified. All exclosures displayed higher plant species richness, diversity, and aboveground standing biomass compared to the adjacent open grazing lands. Consideration of edaphic (e.g. soil total nitrogen, available phosphorus, CEC, exchangeable bases, soil pH and soil texture) and site (e.g. Stoniness, Grazing) variables will help to optimize the selection of areas for the establishment of future exclosures. Moreover, our study suggests that with time exclosures may increasingly obtain an important role as refugees and species pool similar to church forests and should be protected and managed in a sustainable manner. However, economic and social impacts of exclosures should be included in feasibility studies before establishing exclosures in the future. Altitude, Grazing and some soil parameters like Mg were the major environmental factors in the division of the vegetation into plant community types. The result of the frequency distribution of woody species showed a high proportion of small-sized individuals in the lower diameter classes indicating good recruitment potential of the forest patches and the rare occurrence of large individuals. Such trend was probably caused by past disturbance of the original vegetation resulting in a succession of secondary vegetation. In addition, the analysis of species population structure indicated that some tree species had abnormal population structure with no or few individuals at lower size classes. Moreover, assessment of regeneration status on the basis of age classes indicated that significant proportion of woody species were represented by few or no seedlings, entailing that they were under threat. Substantial numbers of forest species were found to have irregular population structure and are in reduced regeneration status. To prevent local extinction of these species, present efforts of nursery establishment and plantation of indigenous species in the exclosures should be strengthened and extended.

Mapping and Estimation of Above-ground Grass Biomass using Sentinel 2A Satellite Data

Above-Ground Grass Biomass (AGGB) mapping and estimation is one of the important parameters for environmental ecosystem and grazing-lands management, particularly for livestock farming. However, previous models for estimation of AGGB with satellite imagery has some difficulty in choosing a particular satellite and vegetation index that can build a good estimation model at a higher accuracy. This study explores the potentiality of Sentinel 2A data to derive a satellite-based model for AGGB mapping and estimation. The study area was Skudai, Johor in Malaysia Peninsular. Grass parameters of forty grass sample units were measured in the field and their corresponding AGGB was later measured in the laboratory. The samples were used for modelling and assessment. Four indices were tested for their fitness in modelling AGGB from the satellite data. The result from the grass allometric analysis indicates that grass height and volume demonstrate good relationship with the measured AGGB (R² = 0.852 and 0.837 respectively). Vegetation Index Number (VIN) has the best fit for modeling AGGB (R2 = 0.840) compared to other vegetation indices. The derived satellite AGGB estimate was validated with the assessment field and allometry derived AGGB at RMSE = 15.89g and 44.45g, respectively. This study demonstrate that VIN derived from Sentinel 2A MSI satellite data can be used to model AGGB estimation at a good accuracy. Therefore, it will contribute to providing reliable information on AGGB of grazing lands for sustainable livestock farming.

Top Dressing of Fertilizers: A Way Forward for Boosting Productivity and Economic Viability of Grasslands

Grasslands in the Ethiopian highlands have been degrading with grazing loads. Fertilizers like nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur improves the soil fertility and species composition of the grazing lands. This study justifies, evaluation of top dressing nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers on biomass yield of grass lands for market-oriented livestock production studied at Chosha kebele, Southern Ethiopia in 2017. Three fertilizer levels ((T1), 150 kg ha−1 urea (T2) and combination of 110 kg ha−1 urea and 100 kg ha−1 NPS (T3)) were laid out in randomized complete block design with 6 replications in summer and winter cropping seasons. Dry matter yield was significantly (P<0.001) different among treatments and higher results were obtained for combination of urea and NPS, followed by urea and the control one. Higher grasses species composition between application of combination of urea and NPS than urea alone. Net revenue is higher in nitrogen alone application than nitrogen and phosphorus. Therefore, better marginal rate of return (MRR=828%) recorded in Urea application for grazing land improvement in Gamo highland areas. It is recommendable to apply 150 kg/ha urea fertilizer to bring optimum yield of grazing land in Southern Ethiopian Highlands.