Free DNA in nature as a tool of ecological monitoring of the environment

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 17-27
Author(s):  
V. M. Pomohaibo ◽  
L. D. Orlova ◽  
N. A. Vlasenko
Keyword(s):  
Aquatic Environment ◽  
Plant Pathogens ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Soil Surface ◽  
Freshwater Ecosystems ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Extracellular Dna ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Plant Residues ◽  
Free Dna

Free DNA in nature or the environmental DNA (eDNA) contains unique information about the diversity not only of unicellular but also of multicellular organisms – fungi, plants, invertebrates and vertebrates in the past and contemporary nature. eDNA of a soil surface and of an aquatic environment may indicate a presence of contemporary living organisms and deposits, sediments and glaciers – wildlife diversity in the geological past. Fungi are reducers, symbions and parasites and play an important ecological role in nature, and so it is important to know their taxonomic and functional characteristics. Analysis eDNA in samples of forest soil showed that ascomycetes and basidiomycetes are represented most of all. They were identified as mycorrhizal types, plant pathogens and saprotrophes. In soils of different climatic zones DNA of numerous taxons of plant (herbs, shrubs, trees), unicellular and multicellular animals (protozoans, earthworms, birds, mammals) was discovered. In spite of this unknown species of fungi and earthworms were discovered. It was ascertained that eDNA of soil surface layer do not move practically and it is able to display a complete taxonomic filling of vertebrates and relative biomass of individual species. Researches of eDNA of freshwater ecosystems is focused to identify and control spreading of invasive species of crustaceans, mollusks, fishes, amphibians and reptiles with the goal of conservation of biological diversity and ecological balance. It is shown that eDNA may be a better tool to identify these species in comparison with traditional methods of audio and visual observation. At the same time a population size and an ontogenetic stage are not important. Another research direction of eDNA in a fresh water aims to identify species of aquatic animals (crustaceans, insects, fish, amphibians and mammals) at risk of extinction. A short time of eDNA existence in freshwater ecosystems is very useful for a nature protecting, because it can indicate a presence, status and disappearance of species. Thus eDNA of previous population, which is rapidly destroyed, will not interfere with the analysis. However, it is necessary to remember that in river ecosystems eDNA moves with the stream at a great distance. Further researches of eDNA in seawater samples are necessary, because in this aquatic environment the ability to move and storage time of free genetic material is insignificant. In land deposits, water sediments and glaciers free DNA do not move and may be preserved for long periods – till hundreds of thousands of years, that gives a possibility to obtain valuable information about the wildlife of paleoenvironments. In samples of permafrost deposits was found eDNA of numerous taxons of fungi, plants, three species of beetles, two species of fossil bird moa, mammoth, bison, horse. Water sediments is rich in eDNA also. In sea sediments extracellular DNA is much more than in sea water. Moreover, the anoxic conditions slow down destructive processes that ensures its long-term preservation. Sea sediments, especially estuary sediments are used to determine influence of human activities on the biological communities of ecosystems. Sediments of freshwater lake also contain eDNA, which represent degrading consequences of human interaction with the environment. Results of eDNA study of lake sediments as well as a study of soil deposits complement results of a study of pollen and fossil plant residues. It confirms a feasibility to combine traditional and molecular genetic methods in ecological researches to obtain most authentic data about past plant diversity. eDNA of many organisms is contained in glaciers. The analysis of this DNA permitted to identify 57 taxons of fungi, 8 orders of higher plants, taxons of protozoans and insects.

scholarly journals Freshwater conservation planning in the far north of Ontario, Canada: identifying priority watersheds for the conservation of fish biodiversity in an intact boreal landscape

FACETS ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-117
Author(s):  
F. Meg Southee ◽  
Brie A. Edwards ◽  
Cheryl-Lesley B. Chetkiewicz ◽  
Constance M. O’Connor
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Conservation Planning ◽  
Brook Trout ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Drainage Basin ◽  
Anthropogenic Impacts ◽  
Freshwater Ecosystems ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Individual Species

Freshwater ecosystems show more biodiversity loss than terrestrial or marine systems. We present a systematic conservation planning analysis in the Arctic Ocean drainage basin in Ontario, Canada, to identify key watersheds for the conservation of 30 native freshwater fish, including four focal species: lake sturgeon, lake whitefish, brook trout, and walleye. We created species distribution models for 30 native fish species and accounted for anthropogenic impacts. We used the “prioritizr” package in R to select watersheds that maximize species targets, minimize impacts, and meet area-based targets based on the Convention on Biological Diversity commitment to protect 17% of terrestrial and freshwater areas by 2020 and the proposed target to protect 30% by 2030. We found that, on average, 17.4% and 29.8% of predicted species distributions were represented for each of the 30 species in the 17% and 30% area-based solutions, respectively. The outcomes were more efficient when we prioritized for individual species, particularly brook trout, where 24% and 36% of its predicted distribution was represented in the 17% and 30% solutions, respectively. Future conservation planning should consider climate change, culturally significant species and areas, and the importance of First Nations as guardians and stewards of the land in northern Ontario.

Modelling the mineralisation of plant residues on the soil surface

Agronomie ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 22 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 711-722 ◽  
Author(s):  
Axel Berkenkamp ◽  
Eckart Priesack ◽  
Jean Charles Munch
Keyword(s):  
Soil Surface ◽  
Plant Residues

The concept of local explosion in freshwater ecosystems

2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 136-148
Author(s):  
I. V. Gryb
Keyword(s):  
Species Composition ◽  
Aquatic Environment ◽  
Arid Zone ◽  
Fish Fauna ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Freshwater Ecosystems ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Living Matter ◽  
Ecosystem Recovery ◽  
Average Temperature

The concept of an explosion in freshwater ecosystems as a result of the release of accumulated energy, accompanied by the destruction of the steady climax successions of hydrocenoses is presented. The typification of local explosions as well as methods for assessing their risk during the development of river basins are shown. The change in atmospheric circulation, impaired phases of the hydrological regime of rivers, increasing the average temperature of the planet, including in Polesie to 0,6 ºC, deforestation leads to concentration and release of huge amounts of unmanaged terrestrial energy, which manifests itself in the form of disasters and emergencies. Hydroecological explosion is formed as a result of multifactorial external influence (natural and anthropogenic) on the water body in a certain period of time. Moreover, its level at wastewater discharge depends on the mass of recycled impurities and behaved processing capacity of the reservoir, and the mass of dumped on biocides and the possibility of the water flow to their dilution and to the utilization of non-toxic concentrations. In all these cases the preservation of "centers of life" in the tributaries of the first order – local fish reproduction areas contributed to ecosystem recovery, and the entire ecosystem has evolved from equilibrium to non-equilibrium with further restructuring after the explosion and environmental transition to a new trophic level. It means that hydroecological explosion can be researched as the logical course of development of living matter in abiotic environmental conditions, ending abruptly with the formation of new species composition cenoses and new bio-productivity. The buffer capacity of the water environment is reduced due to re-development and anthropic transformation of geobiocenoses of river basins, which leads to a weakening of life resistance. This applies particularly to the southern industrial regions of Ukraine, located in the arid zone that is even more relevant in the context of increased average temperature due to the greenhouse effect, as well as to Polesie (Western, Central and Chernihiv), had been exposed to large-scale drainage of 60-80th years, which contributed to the degradation of peatlands and fitostroma. Imposing the western trace of emissions from the Chernobyl accident to these areas had created the conditions of prolonged hydroecological explosion in an intense process of aging water bodies, especially lakes, change in species composition of fish fauna and the occurrence of neoplasms at the organismal level. Under these conditions, for the existence of man and the environment the vitaukta should be strengthened, i.e. buffer resistance and capacitance the aquatic environment, bioefficiency on the one hand and balanced using the energy deposited - on the other. This will restore the functioning of ecosystems "channel-floodplain", "riverbed-lake", reducing the energy load on the aquatic environment. Hydroecological explosions of natural origin can not be considered a pathology – it is a jump process of natural selection of species of biota. Another thing, if they are of anthropogenic origin and if the magnitude of such an impact is on the power of geological factors. Hydroecological explosions can be regarded as a manifestation of environmental wars that consciously or unconsciously, human society is waging against themselves and their kind in the river basins, so prevention of entropy increase in the aquatic environment and the prevention of hydroecological explosions is a matter of human survival. While the man - is not the final link in the development of living matter, it can develop without him, as matter is eternal, and the forms of its existence are different.

REHABILITATION OF THE SOIL STRUCTURE WITH THE DIRECT SOWING IN THE STAVROPOL REGION DRY ZONE

1970 ◽  
pp. 27-31
Author(s):  
V. P. Belobrov ◽  
S. А. Yudin ◽  
V. А. Kholodov ◽  
N. V. Yaroslavtseva ◽  
N. R. Ermolaev ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cover Crops ◽  
Soil Surface ◽  
Plant Residues ◽  
Agricultural Technologies ◽  
Row Crops ◽  
Dry Zone ◽  
Erosion Effect ◽  
Stavropol Region ◽  
Dry Conditions ◽  
Direct Sowing

The influence of different systems of soil cultivation is considered - traditional (recommended) technology and direct sowing, which is increasingly used under dry conditions of the region. The rehabilitation of the degraded southern chernozems and dark chestnut soils structure during 13 and 7 years of direct sowing, respectively, has not been established. It takes much longer to rehabilitation the aggregate state of soils, which is currently in a critical condition of the content of aggregates> 10 mm in size and the sum of agronomically valuable aggregates. The soils under 60-year treeline, as a control, showed a satisfactory range of aggregates, which indicates a high degree of soil degradation in the past and a long period of their recovery time. The effectiveness of direct sowing usage in the cultivation of a wider range of grain and row crops (winter wheat, sunflower, peas, chickpeas, rapeseed, buckwheat, corn) is due to the peculiarities of agricultural technologies. Abandoning of naked fallows and soil treatments with the simultaneous use of plant residues and cover crops on the soil surface between the harvest and sowing of winter crops provides an anti-erosion effect and, as a consequence, a decrease in physical evaporation, an increase in moisture and biota reserves, an increase in microbiological processes, which are noted in the form trends in improving the agrochemical and agrophysical properties of soils.

scholarly journals A Strip-Till One-Pass System as a Component of Conservation Agriculture

Agronomy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 2015
Author(s):  
Iwona Jaskulska ◽  
Kestutis Romaneckas ◽  
Dariusz Jaskulski ◽  
Piotr Wojewódzki
Keyword(s):  
Co2 Emissions ◽  
Soil Loss ◽  
Soil Surface ◽  
Conservation Agriculture ◽  
Plant Residues ◽  
Pass System ◽  
Previous Crop ◽  
Bacteria And Fungi ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Impact

Conservation agriculture has three main pillars, i.e., minimum tillage, permanent soil cover, and crop rotation. Covering the soil surface with plant residues and minimum mechanical soil disturbance can all result from introducing a strip-till one-pass (ST-OP) system. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of the ST-OP technology on the management of plant residues, soil properties, inputs, and emissions related to crop cultivation. We compared the effect of a ST-OP system against conventional tillage (CT) using a plough, and against reduced, non-ploughing tillage (RT). Four field experiments were conducted for evaluating the covering of soil with plant residues of the previous crop, soil loss on a slope exposed to surface soil runoff, soil structure and aggregate stability, occurrence of soil organisms and glomalin content, soil moisture and soil water reserve during plant sowing, labour and fuel inputs, and CO2 emissions. After sowing plants using ST-OP, 62.7–82.0% of plant residues remained on the soil surface, depending on the previous crop and row spacing. As compared with CT, the ST-OP system increased the stability of soil aggregates of 0.25–2.0 mm diameter by 12.7%, glomalin content by 0.08 g·kg−1, weight of earthworms five-fold, bacteria and fungi counts, and moisture content in the soil; meanwhile, it decreased soil loss by 2.57–6.36 t·ha−1 year−1, labour input by 114–152 min·ha−1, fuel consumption by 35.9–45.8 l·ha−1, and CO2 emissions by 98.7–125.9 kg·ha−1. Significant favourable changes, as compared with reduced tillage (RT), were also found with respect to the stability index of aggregates of 2.0–10.0 mm diameter, the number and weight of earthworms, as well as bacteria and fungi counts.

scholarly journals Equipments to manage soil and irrigated rice straw for the sequential sowing of soybean in tropical floodplains1

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Geraldo da Silva ◽  
Adriano Stephan Nascente ◽  
Pedro Marques da Silveira
Keyword(s):  
Surface Roughness ◽  
Fuel Consumption ◽  
Rice Straw ◽  
Soil Surface ◽  
Plant Residues ◽  
Operating Speed ◽  
Randomized Design ◽  
Consequent Reduction ◽  
Soil Surface Roughness ◽  
Energetic Performance

ABSTRACT The presence of straw hinders the sowing of soybean cultivated in succession to rice, in areas irrigated by flooding. This study aimed to evaluate the combination of different configurations of a rice harvester and subsequent activities in the operational and energetic demand of rice straw management and in the soil surface roughness, in order to cultivate soybean in succession. Three independent experiments were conducted in a completely randomized design, as well as evaluated the fuel consumption, effective operating speed, working capacity and final surface roughness of the ground. The energy costs of harvesting rice do not increase when the automated harvester operates with a spreader to distribute the straw on the ground and to avoid the formation of furrows. The presence of rice plant residues in the field increases the skidding of the tractor when pulling the knife-roller, with a consequent reduction of the operating speed, but this does not affect the operational capacity and the fuel consumption. The increase in the number of light harrowings, from one to two operations, in areas worked with knife-roller or intermediate harrow, requires more time and fuel in the management of the soil and rice straw, but leaves the ground with less surface roughness. The management system with knife-roller operation and two light harrowings is the most appropriate method to prepare the soil for soybean cultivation after rice, because it provides the best combination of technical and energetic performance.

scholarly journals Abundance and diversity of soil arthropods and fungi in shelterbelts integrated with pastures in the central tablelands of New South Wales, Australia

2012 ◽  
Vol 58 (No. 12) ◽  
pp. 560-568 ◽  
Author(s):  
E.W. Mbuthia ◽  
J.H. Shariff ◽  
A. Raman ◽  
D.S. Hodgkins ◽  
H.I. Nicol ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Soil Depth ◽  
Soil Surface ◽  
Early Spring ◽  
Late Winter ◽  
Soil Arthropods ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Abundance And Diversity ◽  
The Relationship

Shelterbelts are important for the sustainability of agriculture because they provide a variety of benefits to farmers and the society. Several published papers demonstrate that integration of shelterbelts with agroecosystems offers positive outcomes, such as better yield, more congenial microclimate, and greater organic matter levels. Nonetheless, soil biological diversity, the driver of greater organic matter levels, has not been convincingly tested and verified yet. In addressing this gap, we measured abundance and diversity of populations of arthropods and fungi in three<br />11-year old shelterbelts integrated with pasture to determine whether a correlation exists between the abundance of and diversity in populations of arthropods and fungi in two seasons: late autumn-early winter (May&ndash;June 2011) and late winter-early spring (August&ndash;September 2011). Litter from the soil surface and soil from two depths were sampled at increasing distance from the midpoint of shelterbelts for the extraction of arthropods and isolation culturing of fungi. The relationship among distance, depth and biodiversity of different groups of arthropods and fungi was analysed using linear regression. We found that over both seasons arthropod abundance in the litter and soil declined with increasing distance from the midpoint of the shelterbelts, and with soil depth. However, fungi abundance in either season was not affected by proximity to the shelterbelt but increased with greater soil depth. Distance from the shelterbelt midpoints did not bear an impact on the diversity richness of both arthropods and fungi.

Growth and ignitability of annual pastures in a Mediterranean environment. 2. Ignitability of swards of various annual species

1970 ◽  
Vol 10 (42) ◽  
pp. 76 ◽  
Author(s):  
RT Parrott ◽  
CM Donald
Keyword(s):  
Soil Surface ◽  
Trifolium Subterraneum ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Atmospheric Conditions ◽  
Annual Species ◽  
Lolium Rigidum ◽  
Mediterranean Environment ◽  
Desiccation Process ◽  
Hordeum Leporinum ◽  
Pasture Plants

A study was conducted at Adelaide of the ignitability of monospecific swards of four Mediterranean annual pasture plants under windless conditions throughout the normal field desiccation of the swards in the spring. For any individual species the ignitability depended almost wholly on the percentage of water or the very closely correlated percentage of dead herbage. Atmospheric conditions had no measurable influence on ignitability during desiccation. Trifolium subterraneum was much less ignitable at any particular level of moisture content than were the grasses. Lolium rigidum was more inflammable early in the desiccation process than was Hordeum leporinum of equal water content, presumably due to the greater continuity of dry leaf; but H. leporinum was ignitable much earlier in the spring because it matured and dried sooner than did L. rigidum. In the case of the grasses, only those firebrands that fell to or near the soil surface started a fire, whereas the more compact sward of T. subterraneum, when sufficiently dry, lit readily at the upper surface.

scholarly journals Worldwide distribution and abundance of microplastic: How dire is the situation?

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (10) ◽  
pp. 873-897 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fauziah Shahul Hamid ◽  
Mehran Sanam Bhatti ◽  
Norkhairiyah Anuar ◽  
Norkhairah Anuar ◽  
Priya Mohan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Aquatic Environment ◽  
Freshwater Ecosystems ◽  
Hydrodynamic Conditions ◽  
Widespread Occurrence ◽  
Environmental Pressure ◽  
Worldwide Distribution ◽  
Abundance And Distribution

The widespread occurrence of microplastic has invaded the environment to an extent that it appears to be present throughout the globe. This review investigated the global abundance and distribution of microplastics in marine and freshwater ecosystems. Furthermore, the issues and challenges have been addressed for better findings in microplastics studies. Findings revealed that the accumulation of microplastics varies geographically, with locations, hydrodynamic conditions, environmental pressure, and time. From this review, it is crucial that proper regulations are proposed and implemented in order to reduce the occurrence of microplastics in the aquatic environment. Without appropriate law and regulations, microplastic pollution will eventually threaten human livelihood.

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