Pembacaan Eco Hermeneutic terhadap Narasi Air dalam Kejadian 26:12-33

Natural restoration poses a current theological challenge. Readings that support adaptation, mitigation and recovery efforts are the purpose of writing articles to respond to these challenges. The method used in reading the selected text, namely Genesis 26:12-33, is eco hermeneutic as proposed by Norman Charles Habel. The results showed that Gerar water was compassionate toward Isaac, his family and animals as refugee in the Philistines during that time of famine. However, water stopped serving Isaac because Isaac became unfriendly to him by exploiting him when he was starving. From there Isaac was aware of Water's sovereignty in his encounter with the wells of Sitnah, Esek and Rehoboth. At the same time, Isaac realized that God as the source of Water defends Water in an effort to maintain its intrinsic value for all people fairly.Abstrak. Pemulihan alam menjadi tantangan berteologi saat ini. Pembacaan yang mendukung upaya adaptasi, mitigasi dan pemulihan komunitas alam menjadi tujuan dari penulisan dari artikel untuk merespon tantangan tersebut. Metode yang digunakan dalam pembacaan teks terpilih adalah eco hermeneutic sebagaimana yang digagas oleh Norman Charles Habel. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa Air Gerar berbela rasa dengan Ishak, keluarga dan hewan-hewannya sebagai pengungsi di Filistin selama masa kelaparan saat itu. Namun Air berhenti melayani Ishak karena Ishak menjadi tidak ramah kepadanya dengan mengeksploitasi dirinya saat kelaparan. Dari situ Ishak sadar akan kedaulatan Air dalam perjumpaan dengan sumur Sitnah, Esek dan Rehobot, sekaligus menyadari Tuhan sebagai sumber Air membela Air dalam upayanya mempertahankan nilai intrinsiknya bagi semua orang secara adil.

Changes in Soil-Borne Communities of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi during Natural Regrowth of Abandoned Cattle Pastures Are Indicative of Ecosystem Restoration

Natural restoration of ecosystems includes the restoration of plant-microbial associations; however, few studies had documented those changes in tropical ecosystems. With the aim to contribute to understand soil microbial changes in a natural regrowth succession of degraded pastures that were left for natural restoration, we studied changes in arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal communities. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) establish a mutualistic symbiosis with plants, improving plant nutrition. Amplification of the small subunit rRNA with specific primers and subsequent Illumina sequencing were used to search soil-borne AM fungal communities in four successional natural regrowth stages in two landscapes (hill and mountain) with soil differences, located in the Andean-Amazonian transition. Molecular results corroborated the results obtained previously by spores-dependent approaches. More abundance and virtual taxa of AMF exist in the soil of degraded pastures and early natural regrowth stages than in old-growth or mature forest soils. Although changes in AM fungal communities occurred similarly over the natural regrowth chronosequence, differences in soil texture between landscapes was an important soil feature differentiating AM fungal community composition and richness. Changes in soil-borne AM fungal communities reflect some signals of environmental restoration that had not been described before, such as the reduction of Glomus dominance and the increase of Paraglomus representativeness in the AM fungal community during the natural regrowth chronosequence.

Suggestions for Revegetation over the Next 30 Years Based on Precipitation in the Three North Region of China

Afforestation in the Three North Region (TNR) of China has received wide concern due to the low survival rate and threats to water security associated with the lack of available precipitation for vegetation. It is crucial to provide a spatial layout for revegetation according to the available precipitation to achieve the vegetation cover target. This study investigated the spatial pattern of precipitation, determined the suitable vegetation distribution based on the ecological water requirements and precipitation, and proposed an optimized revegetation scheme by comparing the actual and suitable vegetation patterns. The results indicated that the actual vegetation that matched the pixel-level precipitation accounted for 67.24% of the total vegetation area in the TNR. However, 18.50% of the actual forest, 21.82% of the actual shrublands, and 19.95% of the actual grasslands were overloaded with respect to precipitation. The total suitable vegetation area was reduced slightly compared to the actual vegetation area. There is still some potential for the revegetation of forest and shrublands, mainly those in the eastern and south-eastern parts of the TNR. The optimized revegetation area in the TNR was 3.04 × 106 km2, including a maintenance management type of 2.19 × 106 km2, an upgrade type of 0.49 × 106 km2, and a degradation type of 0.37 × 106 km2. Maintenance management (natural restoration) and transformation to vegetation types with lower ecological water requirements were recognized as important revegetation practices in the TNR. This study provides guidelines to adjust the Three North Shelterbelt Project policies based on precipitation data to reduce the negative impact of revegetation on the hydrological cycle.

Effects of different years of natural recovery of Gastrodia elata on the community structure of bacteria and fungi in rhizosphere soil

Background: There are serious obstacles to continuous cropping of Gastrodia elata. After continuous cropping of Gastrodia elata, the yield will be greatly reduced, or even no harvest. Soil nutrients and microorganisms play an important role in it. There are few related studies on the effects of natural restoration of the rhizosphere soil of Gastrodia elata on the structure of soil bacteria and fungi for different years.Results: In this study, a combination of Illumina Miseq library preparation and high-throughput sequencing technology was used. The soil that had not been planted with Gastrodia elata was used as a control to study the characteristics of soil microbial communities in the rhizosphere of Gastrodia elata from 0 to 5 years of natural restoration, and Correlation between soil characteristics and fungal and bacterial communities. The results showed that (1) The dominant bacteria in the rhizosphere soil of Gastrodia elata are roteobacteria, Actinobacteria and Acidobacteria, and the most important bacterial genera are norank_f_Xanthobacteraceae and Bradyrhizobium. The dominant fungal phyla are Basidiomycota and Ascomycota, and the main fungal genera are Mortierella and Trichoderma. The bacterial and fungal community composition in the rhizosphere soil of Gastrodia elata and the soil without Gastrodia elata planted are not much different, but the community structure and relative abundance are quite different. (2) The Chao index, Shannon index and Invsimpson index of Gastrodia elata rhizosphere soil show an increasing trend with the increase of the natural restoration period, indicating that natural restoration for a certain period of time will increase the diversity and abundance of bacteria and fungi in the rhizosphere soil of Gastrodia elata Increase. (3) With the increase of the natural restoration period, the total nitrogen and pH content of the rhizosphere soil of Gastrodia elata showed an increasing trend. total nitrogen has the greatest influence on the bacterial community structure, and the influence of pH on the fungal community structure ranks No. Second, in the top three phyla with relative content, total nitrogen is positively correlated with Actinobacteria, and pH is positively correlated with Mortierellomycota.Conclusion: After 3 years of natural restoration, the soil environment gradually returns to normal, and the microbial community tends to balance; in addition, the Spearman rank correlation coefficient analysis shows that total nitrogen has the greatest impact on the bacterial community structure in the rhizosphere soil of Gastrodia elata, and total phosphorus has the greatest impact on the fungal community structure. The results provide a theoretical basis for the development of new type microbial fertilizers and soil amendments for Gastrodia elata to alleviate continuous cropping obstacles.

Changes in diversity and composition of rhizosphere bacterial community during natural restoration stages in antimony mine

Background Open pit antimony (Sb) mining causes serious soil pollution, and phytoremediation is a low-cost approach to remediate heavy metal contaminated soil. Rhizosphere bacteria play an important role in ecological restoration in mining areas. There is a knowledge gap on how to find suitable rhizosphere microorganisms to improve the phytoremediation effect. Understanding the differences of rhizosphere bacterial diversity in different restoration stages is helpful to find suitable bacteria for ecological restoration. Methods A method of the substitution of “space” for “time” was used to study the effect of natural restoration on rhizosphere bacterial community. According to the dominant vegetation types (herb, shrub, and tree) in the natural restoration area of Sb mining, the early restoration (ER), middle restoration (MR), and later restoration (LR) from the largest Sb mine (Xikuangshan mine) in the world were selected to evaluate the differences in the composition and diversity of rhizosphere bacteria during three natural restoration stages. Each restoration stage had five samples. To determine the relationship between restoration stages and bacterial diversity in the rhizosphere, high throughput sequencing of PCR amplified were used. Results Alpha diversity, as assessed by Chao indices, appeared lowest in ER but this trend was not seen with other diversity metrics, including the Simpson and Shannon. Beta diversity analysis suggested there were differences in rhizobacterial community structure associate with restoration stage. At the phylum level, natural restoration led to a significant increase in the relative abundance of Actinobacteria in the MR, and a significant decrease in the relative abundance of Patescibacteria in the LR. Additionally, Calditrichaeota, Deferribacteres and Epsilonbacteraeota were only found in ER. At the genus level, the relative abundance of RB41 and Haliangium were highest in LR plots, while that of Bacillus and Gaiella were highest in ER plots. Additionally, the Azorhizobium genus was only detected in the ER phase. Overall, our findings suggested that several rhizosphere microbial communities had significant differences among three natural restoration stages (ER, MR, and LR) and the rhizosphere bacterial communities mainly appeared in the early restoration stage can be preferred for remediation of pollution soil in Xikuangshan.

The Development and Application of a GIS-Based Tool to Assess Forest Landscape Restoration Effects on Water Conservation Capacity

In forest landscape restoration, one of the key objectives is to improve the water conservation capacity of the deforested land. A rapid, accurate assessment of the effects of the restoration measures on the water conservation capacity of targeted forests can help forest managers to identify the best practices for forest restoration. However, the traditional assessment tools of forest water conservation function lack a description of forest growth, and are featured by complex computation, which fails to evaluate the effects of forest restoration on the regional forest water conservation capacity in an efficient way. To address this issue, through combining the forest restoration evaluation model (equivalent recovery area, ERA), classic forest water storage capacity estimation (total water storage capacity), this study has taken advantage of ENVI/IDL, ArcGIS Engine/C#.Net to develop the Forest and Water Assessment Tool (FWAT) for assessing the changes of the regional forest landscape and the associated forest water conservation capacity in various forest restoration scenarios. This tool has been successfully applied in the Upper Zagunao watershed, a large forested watershed in the Upper Yangtze River basin. According to the assessment, the forest water conservation capacity of the study watershed consistently increased from about 1580.76 t/hm2 in 2010 to a projected 2014.34 t/hm2 by natural restoration, and 2124.18 t/hm2 by artificial restoration by 2030. The artificial restoration measures yield a better effect on forest water conservation function than natural restoration. By 2030, the forest water conservation capacity of artificial restoration scenario is expected to be about 7% higher than that of natural restoration scenario. The FWAT as an efficient tool to assess the effects of forest restoration measures on regional forest water conservation capacity can provide scientific support for the design of forest restoration and management strategies worldwide.

Runoff-associated nitrogen and phosphorus losses under natural rainfall events in purple soil area: the role of land disturbance and slope length

Land disturbance and slope length play key roles in affecting runoff-associated nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) losses in different forms under natural rainfall. Field monitoring was conducted in nine plots located parallel on a 15° purple slope in southwest China. Three slope lengths (20-, 40-, 60-m) combined with measures of artificial disturbance and natural restoration were implemented. The highest N concentration was observed in soft rainfall events across all plots. The highest P concentration was recorded in heavy rainfall events for the artificially disturbed plots and in soft rainfall events for the naturally restored plots. Land disturbance differed orthophosphate concentration in 20-m plot, and affected N and P loss amounts in different forms. Slope length differed total dissolved phosphorus concentration in naturally restored plots, and also differed the loss amounts of total dissolved nitrogen and orthophosphate in artificially disturbed plots. Naturally restoration reduced loss amounts of total nitrogen and total phosphorus by 62.14–79.05% and 79.28–83.43% relative to artificial disturbance, respectively. Concentrations of nitrate-nitrogen, total phosphorus and dissolved phosphorus were closely correlated with rainfall and runoff variables, respectively, in artificially disturbed plots. Our results highlight the dominant role of natural restoration in reducing erosion and nutrient loss in sloping land.