Journal of Biodiversity and Ecological Sciences
Volume:1 Issue: 4, 2011

Regarding the considerable amount of Iran's areas occupied by arid and semiarid climates, establishment, maintenance and expansion of green space have faced severe water resources limitations. Since 30 years back, a program entitled Xeriscaping has been established due to water efficient consuming in green space of arid and semi-arid regions. The second principle of this program refers to soil physical amendment. One of the soil amendment materials is super absorbent polymer. First applications of these materials in agriculture worldwide go back to 1960's. In Iran, however, usage of these materials, in agriculture and particularly green spaces, is a new phenomenon. Knowing and surveying the aspects of its applications in environment is the first step to develop. This paper briefly mentions the previous studies in this field, and then its usage rate, effects on physical characteristics of soil, and plant specie's (flowers and ground cover plants, turf grasses, trees and shrubs) reaction and amount of irrigation reduction will be discussed. Eventually, according to results, the most suitable amount for using in green space of arid and semi-arid regions of Iran would be 4 to 6 g per 1 Kg of soil.

In the simple meaning of green areas nature is expected to carry out many functions in an urban context, which are useful to explain the descriptive characters needed for the analysis and comprehension of specific phenomena. Besides being a significant component of the urban scene, vegetation is also one of the most appreciated: generally speaking, vegetation is synonymous with quality. The structural pattern of green areas, which apparently occupies uneven spaces among buildings, regulates in fact the planning order of the fabric of the city, as an organic system, in which its matrix organises and shows the social mechanisms of the city itself. Starting from a general scheme, the research has to discover the criteria which determined the structure of the environmental and “naturalistic” scene of a specific site, considering the various elements which can illustrate the cognitive context of the territory itself. The comprehension of the site characteristics and the trends of certain phenomena thus becomes crucial to supervise and control the territorial development respecting its qualities with an efficient filing system. The survey then becomes an indispensable instrument for knowledge which is not limited to the analysis of a specific situation but should lead to the understanding of possible associations and connections. Due to these complex relationships the research cannot be limited to a single professional, but needs to integrate different professionals: landscape surveyors, botanists and specialists on plant protection as entomologists and pathologists. Therefore a system of analysis was experimented, from a general perspective to a detailed one, considering all the intermediate degrees. Through the studies of the relationships between the different steps, the connections between the scale of human perception and the scale of territorial management may be understood.

Psoralea corylifolia as one of the medicinal herbs is used in the treatment of psoriasis, leukoderma and in many medicinal formulations. The genetic profiles and secondary metabolite content of 9 populations comprising of 72 accessions of P. corylifolia collected from different locations in western Maharashtra have been analyzed. Out of 40 RAPD primers, 21 primers were found polymorphic which gave 226 polymorphic loci with 99.56% polymorphism. The PIC value on an average was 0.228 indicating better discriminating power of RAPD’s in the present study. The cluster analysis and AMOVA showed more genetic variation within populations (76.47%) than between populations (23.53%). Methanolic extracts of dried seeds were analyzed for the total flavonoid and phenolic content while the acid hydrolysed ethanolic extracts were used for the estimation of isoflavonoids (daidzein and genistein) and coumarin (psoralen) content. Variation in the metabolite content was analyzed by one-way ANOVA and cluster analysis. An attempt has been made for the first to correlate the genetic and biochemical data in the populations of P. corylifolia.

Prosopis cineraria is a very significant tree of the Thar Desert of India, contributing to ecological stability of the region and providing extensive support to human beings, livestock and the nutrient deficient soils. Since last one decade, problem of drying and mortality of this species has been noticed in some parts of the desert. Factors responsible for this drying phenomenon and research efforts undertaken by Arid Forest Research Institute, Jodhpur, India for various aspects related to the species has been discussed in the paper.

Sawdust of Triplochiton Scleroxylon was evaluated as a new biosorbent of heavy metals. On contacting 100mgL−l copper (II) solutions with 20 g L−1 Sawdust, during shake flask contact time of 45 min, the metal removal was noted to be 69%. The influence of pH, sorbent dose, concentration, temperature, and contact time on the sorption of Cu(II) on sawdust has been studied by batch process. The optimum conditions of sorption were found to be: contact time of 45 min, pH and temperature 4.0 and 40°C respectively. The sorption kinetics was found to follow pseudo-second-order model. The sorption data perfectly fit the linear Langmuir isotherm model with 0.99 regression coefficient (R2) and 0.66 average percentage errors (ε%). The fit on Freundlich adsorption isotherm model was acceptable but not as good. Calculated thermodynamic parameters such as ΔHo, ΔSo and ΔGo indicated spontaneous and exothermic nature of the process. The study points out the potential use of sawdust; at present has no commercial value, for the treatment of wastewaters contaminated with heavy metals.

This study is based on extensive field operations in the Zagros - Arasbaran and Hyrcanian habitats been the aim of determining the types and range physiographic of forest oak trees and their diversity has been identified. Accordingly, a total of 8 species of oak forest types have been identified as the main species. Quercus Persica Zohary,, Q. infectoria Oliv, Q.libani Oliv Q.magnosquamata Djavanchire in the Zagros habitat. Q.castaneifolia CAM, Q.macrantera Fisch, Q.iberica Krassi in the Hyrcanin habitat and Q.macrantera Fisch Q.komarovii Camus Arasbaran in the Arasbaran habitat. The results also showed that the total area of oak forest is 5785760 hectares in Iran that about 98 percent of its habitat is located in the Zagros. Iran Oak forests are in Kerishan Mountain in Arasbaran habitat for highest latitude(fig:1) and eastern longitude of oak forest growth in Ashkhane Mountain (Khorasan province) and the lowet alititud of oak forest growth in Parishan mountain (Fars province). About 88 oak forest type identified that there are about 30 type for Zagros habitate and 35 type for Hyrcanian habitate and 23 type for arasbaran habitate. The forests are growing in the range 350 to 2000 mm of rainfall in the hyrcanian region and about 300 to 500 mm in Arsbarn and 300 to 900 mm in the Zagros region. At least the habitat maps for oak forests in Iran prepared and published they are with 1:250000 scales for zagrous and 1:50000 scale for Hyrcany and Arasbaran habitat.

Acridids have been identified as important bio-indicators for assessing biodiversity and monitoring ecosystem responses to anthropogenic disturbance. The community structure of acridids plays vital role in functioning the forest ecosystem. A total of 25 sites are distributed among five habitat types based on different vegetation communities and degree of disturbances including five terrestrial weed dominant sites (WDS), five Oryza species dominant sites (ODS), five sal dominant sites (SDS), five road sites (RDS) and five rock sites (RS) in Chipkuthi forest, West Bengal, India. Total abundance, species richness and diversity of acridids were highest in undisturbed habitats and lowest in highly disturbed habitats. Acridid species appear to be negatively affected by anthropogenic disturbances. The analyses show significant positive correlation between undisturbed habitats and species diversity of acridids within the study area.

The vulnerability of agriculture to unfavourable variations in climate and weather conditions is enormous and is pressuring on the limited resources available for human growth and development. In spite of the advantages made in the areas of science and technology with the gene marker, breeding, genetic and more recently biotechnology, improved crop varieties, irrigation and livestock improvement, still the climate remains a very serious factor in agricultural productivity.

An annotated list of insects infesting Vateria indica L. is given in the paper. It includes 42 species of insect pests in which the presence of two species of sap suckers viz., Coptosoma sp. and Krishna sp., four species of defoliators viz., Clytra sp., Gryllus sp., Isodemis serpentinana (Walker) and Nanophyes sp. and an unidentified curculionid beetle on fruits and seed form first record on V. indica.

This study examined the diversity and abundance of microbes, pH and organic matter of soils cultivated with three different plantation species and an adjacent natural forest in tropical humid lowland forest ecosystem, Nigeria. The plantations were unthinned stands of Nauclea didderrichi, Gmelina arborea and Tectona grandis established in 1979 in Akure Forest Reserve, Ondo State, Nigeria. Soil samples were collected (at a depth of 0 -15 cm) from four randomly located plots of 20 x 20 m in each forest type with soil auger. In general, there were 33 and 23 species of bacteria and fungi respectively in the soil samples. The population of bacteria ranged between 26.14 x 106 and 36 x 106 MPN g-1 dried soil while that of fungi ranged between 2.50 x 106 and 23.34 x 106 MPN g-1 dried soil. Highest species diversity and population of the microbes were isolated in soil samples from the natural forest and the least from Tectona grandis stand. Microbial diversity and abundance were influenced by soil pH and organic matter. There was no significant difference in organic matter and pH of soils from the four forest ecosystems (p < 0.05) but significant difference was discovered to exist in the bacteria and fungi population (p > 0.05). The number and diversity of bacteria was significantly more than what was obtained for fungi in all the soil samples. However, there was close association in the abundance of the microbes. Microbial abundance and diversity are affected when a natural forest is converted to plantation of fast growing species, so plantation development should be limited to degraded and marginal lands and such places where soil reclamation is required.

Infiltration experiments were conducted to investigate seasonality effect of infiltration rates on some major soils in Gidan Kwanu area of the central area of Nigeria. The major soil found in this area is the sandy loam type with a sparse distinction of the sandy–clay soil and sandy soils. The infiltrometer rings will be placed randomly on each soil type and measurement taken to the nearest centimetre. The rings will be driven into the ground by hammering a wooden bar placed diametrically on the rings to prevent any blowout effects around the bottoms of the rings. In areas where ridges and furrows existed, the inner rings will always be placed in the furrow. The sandy soil had the highest rate of infiltration rate of 11.26 cm/hr and 19.35 cm/hr for the wet and dry seasons respectively while disturbed sandy soil hard the lowest infiltration rate of 8.18 cm/hr during the wet season and disturbed loam soil had the lowest infiltration rate of 8.61 cm/hr for dry season. Infiltration capacity was reasonably stable over the two seasons considered, thus infiltration tests have a role in assessing the long term risk of overland flow and the associated pollution hazard.