Environment & Ecosystem Science (EES)

Home garden, the name itself clarifies its meaning any garden that is belonging to home which can be anywhere at the front, behind, or in any fallow land. The reason why home garden and its diversity were studied is get access to the ethnobotanical study of the species and knowledge among people regarding the home garden could be more lighten up. A survey was conducted from October (2019) to January (2020). Among the surveyed fifty households, the type of home garden dominated was front type ranging from 45-700m2 whose management and diversity were changing as per the gender. Altogether of 108 species were collected in a home garden belonging to 45 families, 34 species were found to be common. The representative families Leguminosae and Asteraceae rank on top followed by Moraceae, Brassicaceae, Poaceae, and so on. Despite the result concluding the most diversified crops, the home garden of Sunsari district itself carries a wider range of diversity from fruits, vegetables, spices to economically useful species like ornamental plants and fodders. With the studies and knowledge accounted, it can be concluded that pursuing a home garden not only revalues our health and environment but also preserves a hundred ages of traditions.

Fungal endophytes are a special group of symbionts that invade the internal environment of the host organism without causing any pathogenic symptoms. They increase the vigor of the plant while protecting them from several biotic and abiotic stress conditions such as herbivory, disease, and drought. In this study, endophytic fungi were isolated from fig (Ficus carica), a beneficial plant belongs to the family of Moraceae. This study was conducted to determine the potential of fungal endophytes of F.carica as biocontrol agents against selected phytopathogens Ganoderma boninense, Magnaporthe oryzae, and Fusarium verticillioides. Besides, endophytic fungi isolates were also screened to assess their ability as a phosphate-solubilizing agent. Results obtained revealed that a total of 11 fungal endophytes was successfully isolated from leaf, root, and stem samples of F.carica. The cultural-morphological identifications were carried out on the unknown fungal isolates. For the antagonistic test, S2-1 and R3-4 show a promising potential against those phytopathogens with more than 20% Percentage Inhibition Radial Growth (PIRG). Endophyte S2-1 exhibits the competition mechanism, while R3-4 expresses the antibiosis mechanism in suppressing the mycelium growth of phytopathogens. As for phosphate solubilization, 8 of 10 isolates show positive results as phosphate solubilizer with the highest PSI value 3.02±0.05 (S2-4).

A set of fifty bread wheat genotypes that comprised of 49 high temperature tolerant lines from CIMMYT and a local check Gautam were evaluated with an objective to study the character association between yield and yield related components at the research farm of Agriculture and Forestry University, Rampur during the wheat season 2016/2017 under late sown condition. The experiment was laid out following Alpha Lattice design with two replications. Grain yield has positive and significant correlations with biomass yield, harvest index, thousand kernel weight, plant height, SPAD1 flag leaf area, SPAD1 and number of grain per spike. Negative and significant correlations were observed between grain yield with days to flowering, days to heading and days to booting. Path analysis revealed that biomass weight has maximum positive direct effect on grain yield followed by harvest index, days to booting, days to flowering, SPAD3, root angle of basket condition, number of root, number of grains per spike, and number of tiller per meter square. On the other hand, days to booting, flag leaf area, physiological maturity, SPAD1, SPAD2, root length, days to flag leaf senescence, plant height, ctd2, and thousand kernel weight showed the negative direct effect on grain yield.

Bacillus cereus is a ubiquitous foodborne pathogen, can cause food poisoning, leading to infections, have two major types of food poisoning emetic and diarrheal. Foods rich in protein such as meat are associated with foodborne outbreaks of diarrhea caused by B. cereus. The aim of this study is to isolate and identify B. cereus from ready to eat (RTE) meat curry from restaurants in Malaysia and to detect hblD pathogenic gene of B. cereus isolates. Mannitol egg yolk polymyxin agar was used as a selective isolation medium. Commercially available kits and boiling methods were used for DNA extraction, samples acquired from restaurants were examined for the presence of Hemolysin BL gene by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Among all isolates, twenty-four of B. cereus isolates detected for HBL enterotoxin production by the discontinuous pattern on HBL sheep blood agar then confirmed by biochemical tests. More than 58.33 % of the isolate showed discontinuous hemolysis pattern on HBl blood agar and 29.16% of the samples were shown positive for hblD gene that can cause diarrhea with the size of 807bp on gel. This study demonstrated that RTE meat curry was a potential source for entero-toxigenic B. cereus and the presence of the hblD toxin genes for the HBL complex in the isolates tested were highly associated. Therefore, these meat curry isolates should be regarded as potential toxin producers.

Pekalongan City, particularly North Pekalongan District, lies adjacently to the Java Sea. This situation shapes the vulnerability of the District to tidal floods, which have been occurring since 2005. Tidal floods negatively affect the community, as well as the inundated environment. Since 2016, the flooding has reached the areas in Pekalongan Barat District, especially Pasirkratonkramat Sub-District. It affected 1,435 households distributed in 13 Community Units. This research analyzed the community perception of the quality of the environment inundated by tidal floods, including the biophysical and the socio-economic environments. It used questionnaire and performed interviews with 93 heads of household as the respondents, as well as field observation that produced qualitative data of environmental quality. The results of this research presented the tidal flood-affected community’s perception of environmental quality, which was determined by education, income, and length of residence in tidal flood-prone locations. Furthermore, the results of community’s perception of environmental quality analyses using measuring instruments and statistical tests, i.e., chi-square test and binary logistic regression, supported the research analysis.

Pasirkratonkramat Sub-District is located in West Pekalongan District, Pekalongan City, Central Java, Indonesia. This location has been affected by tidal floods since 2016. Tidal floods have caused a decrease in environmental quality. The method used for this research is a descriptive survey research with an ecological approach. This paper presents the quality of the biophysical environment and social quality. The biophysical environment consists of water quality, soil quality, air quality. The water quality showed that Pollution Index (PI) of surface water is 5,15 (medium pollution), PI of Clean water (Residents’ well waters) is 5,09 (medium pollution) and PI of Clean Water is 2,20 (light pollution). Water quality analyzed by parameters Electrical Conductivity, Salinity, BOD, COD, Total Phosphate as P, Chrome (Cr) (VI), Copper Cu, Nitrite as N, Free chlorine, Sulfur as H2S, Oil and fat, Detergent as MBAS, Fecal Coliform, Total Coliform, Chloride, Total dissolved solids (TDS), Water hardness (CaCO3), and Organic substance (KMnO4). The soil of quality decreased because of inundating sea water, the chemical and physical composition cannot support paddy or plants to grow, even they cannot survive because of salinity and decreasing minerals. The air quality showed that the average Temperature Humidity Index (THI) is 28.74 which mean that 100% of subjects feel uncomfortable. Meanwhile the social quality consists of various activities.

Coastal people of Bangladesh have been experiencing from lower crop productivity and fewer cropping intensity because of different climatic vulnerabilities. The research work was carried out in Banskhali upazila of Chattogram district and Teknaf of Cox’s Bazar district to assess the impact of climate change on crop production process and to suggest suitable coping strategies and adaptation options for advancing the coastal agriculture for increased agricultural production. To attain the objectives of the research, the author were collected randomly 240 sampled respondents using pre-tested interview schedule. Long-term data/information on climate change showed that there is a trend of temperature rise and erratic rainfall. Participants stated that the current climate in the study area behaving differently than in the past on a number of climate risk factors like increased temperature, frequent drought, changes in seasonal rainfall pattern, long dry spells, increase of soil salinity, increase of tidal surges affecting crop production. The study showed that the main reasons of yield reduction (20-40 % yield loss) in T. aman crop are erratic rainfall, increased intensity and frequency of drought, salinity, floods, cyclone, use of local varieties, increased incidences of pests & diseases etc in the context of climate change. Average yield level of HYV Boro is being affected (20-40 % yield loss) by high temperature and salinity and that of T.Aus/Aus crop is being affected (20-40 % yield loss) by tidal surge. Vegetables, pulses and oilseed crops are being affected (40-60 % yield loss) by soil wetness, excessive rainfall and water-logging in the selected areas. Sorjan system of cropping, rice-fish dual culture, utilization of bunds as vegetables/spices production in gher areas, floating bed agriculture and homestead gardening with introduction of salt-tolerant & drought tolerant crop varieties have been identified as potential adaptation options for development of coastal agriculture for increased agricultural production in attaining food security.

Identification and mapping of landslide is essential for landslide risk and hazard assessment. This paper gives information on the uses of landsat imagery for mapping landslide areas ranging in size from safe area to highly prone areas. Landslide mitigation largely depends on the understanding of the nature of the factors namely: slope, soil type, lineament, lineament density, elevation, rainfall and vegetation. These factors have direct bearing on the occurrence of landslide. Identification of these factors is of paramount importance in setting out appropriate and strategic landslides control measures. Images for this study was downloaded by using remote sensing with landsat 8 ETM and aerial photos using ArcGIS 10.7 and Surfer 8 software, while Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and Google EarthPro TM were used to produce slope, drainage, lineament and elevation. From the processed landsat 8 imagery, landslide susceptibility map was produced, and landslide was category into various class; low, medium and high. From the study, it was observed that Enugu and Anambra state ranges from high to medium in terms of landslide susceptibility, Imo state ranges from medium to low.

In Algeria, soil erosion has experienced a spectacular extension, it is therefore imperative to assess the effects of this phenomenon. The purpose of this study is to assess soil loss rate using a GIS/USLE approach at the Mellegue watershed, northeast of Algeria. Geographic Information System techniques have been adopted to process data obtained at the study watershed, of reasonable spatial mapping, for the application of the RUSLE model. The model is a multiplication of the five erosion factors, namely rainfall erosivity, soil erodibility, slope and length of slope, plant cover and anti-erosion practices. Each of these factors has been expressed as a thematic map. The resulting soil loss map, with mean erosion rate of 20.40 T/ha/year, shows very low erosion (≤ 7 T/ha/year) which covers 64.60% of the total area of the basin, and very high erosion (> 60 T/ha/year) which does not exceed 4.80% of the basin area. The results indicate that Chabro and downstream Mellegue sub-watersheds face the greatest risk of soil erosion compared to Meskiana sub-basin, with contributions of 14.20 % and 12.90 % of their basin areas respectively. This is mainly due to natural factors and anthropogenic activities without appropriate conservation practices of agricultural land.

Climate variability is one of the serious environmental challenges that have received a lot of public outcry in most parts of the world due to its consequence on agricultural production and other sectors of the national economy and general wellbeing. This study, therefore, sought to examine the effects of climate variability on crops production in the Bakori Local Government Area of Kastina State, Nigeria. Rainfall, temperature and selected crops (Sorghum) data from the farmers living in Bkori and cultivate Guinea corn every year. The data were analyzed using correlation and regression analysis in SPSS and the trend the function of Microsoft Excel.). The study identified positive crop yield while comparing temperature trend sorghum temperature characteristics, the most important climatic variable that influences the yields of Sorghum in Bakori is temperature and rainfall. This has beeachieved by monitoring 100 farmers at different locations in the study area and the use of farm inputs and monitoring of crop-climate relationships to achieve improved crop yield.