A new species of Leptoconops Skuse from Argentina, description of the male of L. casali Cavalieri & Chiossone and a key to the Neotropical species (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae)

A new species, Leptoconops (Proleptoconops) chacoensis, is described and photographed from a female collected in a forest area of the Chaco province, Argentina. This is the first record of the subgenus L. (Proleptoconops) Clastrier from the Neotropical region south of Mexico, and the new species is compared with L. (P.) werneri Wirth & Atchley from southern USA and Mexico and L. (P.) aviarum from Tajikistan. Besides, the first description of the male of L. (Leptoconops) casali Cavalieri & Chiossone is provided, from males collected associated with females in La Rioja and La Pampa provinces, Argentina, and this species is newly recorded from several areas of the country, significantly enlarging its geographical distribution. In addition, a key to Neotropical species of the genus is provided.

Data-Driven Forest Cover Change and Its Driving Factors Analysis in Africa

Forest cover plays an important role in sustaining ecological security to realize Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The research target area is composed of the African region which is experiencing unprecedented deforestation based on the data collection from 54 countries and regions between 2000 and 2020. Spatial autocorrelation analysis, global principal component analysis, and geographic detector model have been used as the core research tool. The temporal and spatial patterns of forest cover change in Africa and the driving effects of population growth, economic and trade, social development, arable land expansion, and other factors on forest cover change in different periods have been demonstrated. The findings are as follows: 1) extremely unequal distribution of Africa forest has caused forest area reduction in 20 years. The reduction quantity of forest has been illustrated from strong to weak: Central Africa (strongest), East Africa (higher strong), West Africa (medium), South Africa (higher weak), and North Africa (weakest). However, the forest reduction area in West Africa with the original ratio is the most significant. More than 80% of the forest area reduction in Africa has occurred in 14 countries, just five national forest areas to achieve the net growth, but the increase amount was only 1% of loss amount. 2) The spatial pattern of forest cover change in Africa contracted and clustered gradually, especially after 2012. Algeria was the hotspot cluster of Morocco and Tunisia, forming the increase area of forest cover in North Africa. Zambia, the coldest point, gathers Angola significantly, while the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania form a significantly reduced forest cover area. 3) Total population, land area, cultivated land, urban population, consumer price index, and birth rate are the main factors influencing the temporal evolution of forest cover change in Africa. It can be divided into four stages to interpret the different explanations and significance of each factor for forest cover change in the study area.

Assessment the impacts of climate change on drought in the Ba River basin, Central Vietnam using Landsat remote sensing data

Sustainable management of the river basin is a profound challenge for environmental management in the context of climate change. Drought situations in a basin occur in relation to meteorological, hydrological, agricultural factors and climate change as well. In this study, remote sensing technology was applied to assess the impacts of climate change on drought in the Ba River basin, Central Vietnam. Drought in the basin has been created by land use/land cover changes in recent years, which has resulted in a sharp decrease in forest area in the period 1989 to 2019 (-41.5%) and a significant increase of agricultural land with 38.2%. Following that, the area of drought agriculture rose by 28.8%. The remarkably high drought areas in agricultural land were in El Nino years, 2016 (99.2%) and 2019 (87.3%), which indicated that under climate change impacts, a drought occurred more severely. Moreover, drought also appeared in the forest. The forest area deceased but the drought levels in the forest increased slightly since 2005 and hit a peak drought value in 2016 with 97.0% of forest area. During El Niño years, the precipitation, atmospheric moisture, and water flow in the basin were all lower than in previous years.

Report of Neoheterophrictus chimminiensis Sunil Jose, 2020 (Araneae: Theraphosidae) from the Nelliyampathy forest region of Western Ghats, India

Neoheterophrictus chimminiensis Sunil Jose, 2020 was previously only found in the Chimmini forest area, but it has recently been found in the Nelliyampathy forest region of Western Ghats, indicating its distribution. Taxonomic description illustrations and measurements of chimminiensis are added.

Variations in Vegetation and Nutrient Composition in Sal and Eucalyptus Stands: A Case Study of Bhagabatichak Forest Area, West Bengal, India

The study was conducted on two type of stands one was coppice sal (Shorea robusta Gaertn. F.) stand (CSS) managed by Forest Protection Committee (FPC) along with the State Forest Department and other was coppice eucalyptus (Eucalyptus tereticornis Sm.) stand (CES) solely managed by the State Forest Department. These two stands are in the Bhagabatichak forest area under Midnapore East Forest Division, West Bengal, India. In this study Importance Value Index (IVI), biomass, species diversity index (H/), concentration of dominance(Cd), species richness index(d), beta diversity(βd), index of similarity (IS), nutrient composition and soil pH of the two stands were measured. The study reveals that the highest numbers of species were available during monsoon period in both the stands; these were 71 and 43 respectively in CSS and CES. The result also shows that the highest IVI was occupied by sal in CSS and eucalyptus in CES in all the seasons. Other major species were Clerodendrum viscosum Vent, Lantana camara L., Combretum roxburghii Spreng. Highest diversity index (H/) was in CSS during monsoon (1.983) and minimum in CES during pre-monsoon (1.274). So, the species richness index (d) was higher in CSS during monsoon (28.259) and lower in CES during pre-monsoon (12.112).Cd shows the opposite trend, it was higher in CES during pre-monsoon (0.125) and lower in CSS during monsoon (0.042). β diversity reflects the rate of species change, which was highest in CSS during post-monsoon (1.300). The similarity index (IS) between the two stands was 64.91%. The total annual above ground biomass (agb) were 87008.043 kg ha-1 yr-1 in CSS and 86309.837 kg ha-1 yr-1 in CES. Among them major contributors were sal (82357.946 kg ha-1 yr-1) in CSS and eucalyptus (84246.358 kg ha-1 yr-1) in CES. In both the stands higher amount of nutrients were available in Combretum roxburghii. In CSS available NPK were 1.272%, 0.527% and 1.867% respectively in Combretum roxburghii. In CES the values were 0.864%, 0.513% and 1.724% respectively for the same species. Soil pH of CSS were 5.53 in top soil and 5.79 in subsoil, in CES soil pH were 4.88 and 5.02 in top soil and subsoil respectively. It was observed that sal stand was better than eucalyptus stand with respect to ecology and biodiversity.

Institutional Analysis of Protection Forest Area Land Use Pattern in the North Bandung Area, Bandung Regency

Land use degradation has always been a problem for forest areas. Numerous past studies have investigated that there are patterns in the forest area's land use management that support forest sustainability and society's economy. This research aims to identify the action arena and patterns of interaction, to describe the outcomes of the two land use patterns, and to formulate the strategy related to forest area land use pattern in North Bandung Area, Bandung Regency. This research used Institutional analysis and development (IAD) framework as the research method. The identified action arena includes the pattern of commodity and profession transfer. The actors involved were State-owned Forest Enterprises (Perum Perhutani), Village Administrations, forest extensions, Forest Village Community Association (FVCA), and Forest and Farm Producers Organization (FFPO). The most dominating actor in land use activities in both patterns was Perum Perhutani, along with FVCA and FFPO. The pattern of interaction that exists between actors was prospering with only minor problems found within its coordination system. The outcome of the application of these two patterns, among others, is to raise public awareness in conserving forests and improving the community's economy. The land management strategy for forest areas can be directed using the Penta helix concept.

Modeling in the OMNET ++ environment of connection processes in Wi-Fi networks

Предложен подход к разработке в среде OMNeT++ INET простейшей имитационной модели инфраструктурного режима функционирования Wi-Fi сети, который позволяет проводить подробный анализ функционирования таких сетей, а также строить и анализировать временные диаграммы взаимодействия всех элементов сети. Разработанную модель можно использовать как базовую для формирования более сложных моделей с произвольным числом мобильных клиентов, позволяя определять необходимое количество точек доступа и мест их размещения для обеспечения полноценного покрытия зоны мониторинга лесной территории. An approach to the development in the OMNeT ++ INET environment of the simplest simulation model of the infrastructure mode of Wi-Fi network operation is proposed, which allows a detailed analysis of the functioning of such networks, as well as to build and analyze the time diagram of the interaction of all network elements. The developed model can be used as a base for the formation of more complex models with an arbitrary number of mobile clients, allowing you to determine the required number of access points and their locations to ensure full coverage of the monitoring area of the forest area.

POTENSI SUMBER PANGAN LOKAL DI KAWASAN KHDTK MUNGKU BARU

The current pandemic of the Corona-19 virus not only affects social activities but also affects the food sector. Strong food security in the long term can be realized through a diversification program based on local wisdom by utilizing local plants. This study aims to determine the potential of local food sources that can be used as an alternative to food consumption in the regions and reduce dependence on food sources from outside the region in realizing food security during and after the Covid-19 pandemic (study on communities in the Mungku Baru Educational Forest area, Muhammadiyah University. Palangkaraya). The research was conducted in the educational forest area or Forest Area with Special Purpose (KHDTK), Mungku Baru Village, Rakumpit District, Palangka Raya City, Central Kalimantan Province. The research method is descriptive qualitative from the results of interviews. Data analysis using tabulation matrix. There are 33species of local plants used by the community. Utilization of these plants in the form of fruit, seed, peel of fruit, leaves, rubers, and young shoots by eating or cooking them. Cultivation has not been carried out, the community takes directly part of the plant to be consumed. Habitus of these plants in the form of trees, shrubs, lianas, grasses, shrubs and herbs. Existing local food sources can be used as an alternative for food consumption in the regions and reduce dependence on food sources from outside the region and can realize food security during and after the Covid-19 pandemic

ASSESSMENT OF THE VISIBILITY CAPABILITIES OF FOREST FIRE LOOKOUT TOWERS: THE CASE OF GEMLIK, BURSA, TURKEY

In Turkey, there are forest areas that are sensitive to fire in the first degree, especially along the coastline in the Marmara region and the Aegean and Mediterranean regions. As a result of forest fires, which is one of the biggest environmental disasters on forest resources, approximately 10000 hectares of forest area is damaged annually. One of the important elements of combating forest fires is early detection. In order to achieve this goal, the correct positioning of fire lookout towers is of great importance. In this study, it was aimed to evaluate visibility capabilities of forest fire lookout tower in Gemlik Forestry Enterprise Chief (FEC) located in the city of Bursa. Firstly, the visibility analysis was implemented using in ArcGIS 10.4.1 to evaluate the existing fire tower in the FEC, and then considering the potential fire lookout tower in the study area, the visible areas from both existing and new tower were determined. According to the results, while 63.55% of the study area was visible from the existing tower, this ratio increased to 77.39% when the second tower was added. When only the forest areas are evaluated, the existing tower could see 71.73% of the forest areas, while the visible forest areas have increased to 83.36% when the two towers were taken into account. It has been seen that the visibility capacities of existing towers and potential towers can be evaluated effectively by using GIS-based visibility analysis.