scholarly journals Insight into Invasive Species (Mikania micrantha), Its Control Measures and Programmes in Nepal

1970 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 115-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajan P Paudel

Invasive species adversely affects the ecology and habitat of the species existing in a particular region. They are one of the top threats to the biodiversity of life on Earth. Mikania micrantha is spreading like a wildfire in Nepal whose effect on Rhino habitat is being studied in Chitwan National Park. Various mechanical, chemical and biological methods of control for Mikania are available. It's likely to be more cost effective to prevent the spread of invasive species in the first place than to tackle the biodiversity crisis once they have become established.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/init.v4i0.5544The Initiation Vol.4 2011 115-119

2018 ◽  
pp. 144-149
Author(s):  
U. Aryal ◽  
B. H. Wagle ◽  
B. Lamichhane ◽  
A. Parajuli ◽  
P. Thapa

The spread of Mikania micrantha is causing a serious threat to native ecosystem in the tropical and sub-tropical parts of Nepal. The main objective of the study was to analyse the effectiveness of different control measures applied in the grasslands of Chitwan National Park (CNP) by comparing number and coverage of M. micrantha and native grass species. The three experimental sites were grassland of the CNP. These sites were delineated from Etrex 30, Global Positioning System (GPS) and GIS 10.3.2 in April, 2013. A block with size of 100 m x 100 m was separated by fire line on all sides for each treatment in each site. Systematic sampling with random start was used to establish sample plots within each block. Six sample plots were established in each block. The size of each plot was 2 m x 0.4 m (0.8 m2). The distance between one sample plot to another sample plot was 40 m. Three treatments applied in three blocks of each site were controlled fire, manual cutting and control (no treatment).Seedlings of M. micrantha and native grasses were counted and their coverage assessed in each plot. The coverage and number of native grass species were higher in controlled fire plot than in manual cutting and control plots. The study concludes that controlled fire is better than manual cutting and control treatments for the management of grassland. This study will help to different stakeholders to control its outreach, make polices, proper management of grasslands that are being affected by the invasion of M. micrantha. Banko JanakariA Journal of Forestry Information for Nepal Special Issue No. 4, 2018, Page: 144-149 


BMC Medicine ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bimandra A. Djaafara ◽  
Charles Whittaker ◽  
Oliver J. Watson ◽  
Robert Verity ◽  
Nicholas F. Brazeau ◽  
...  

Abstract Background As in many countries, quantifying COVID-19 spread in Indonesia remains challenging due to testing limitations. In Java, non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) were implemented throughout 2020. However, as a vaccination campaign launches, cases and deaths are rising across the island. Methods We used modelling to explore the extent to which data on burials in Jakarta using strict COVID-19 protocols (C19P) provide additional insight into the transmissibility of the disease, epidemic trajectory, and the impact of NPIs. We assess how implementation of NPIs in early 2021 will shape the epidemic during the period of likely vaccine rollout. Results C19P burial data in Jakarta suggest a death toll approximately 3.3 times higher than reported. Transmission estimates using these data suggest earlier, larger, and more sustained impact of NPIs. Measures to reduce sub-national spread, particularly during Ramadan, substantially mitigated spread to more vulnerable rural areas. Given current trajectory, daily cases and deaths are likely to increase in most regions as the vaccine is rolled out. Transmission may peak in early 2021 in Jakarta if current levels of control are maintained. However, relaxation of control measures is likely to lead to a subsequent resurgence in the absence of an effective vaccination campaign. Conclusions Syndromic measures of mortality provide a more complete picture of COVID-19 severity upon which to base decision-making. The high potential impact of the vaccine in Java is attributable to reductions in transmission to date and dependent on these being maintained. Increases in control in the relatively short-term will likely yield large, synergistic increases in vaccine impact.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (7) ◽  
pp. 3577
Author(s):  
Victor Camberos ◽  
Jonathan Baio ◽  
Ana Mandujano ◽  
Aida F. Martinez ◽  
Leonard Bailey ◽  
...  

Understanding the transcriptomic impact of microgravity and the spaceflight environment is relevant for future missions in space and microgravity-based applications designed to benefit life on Earth. Here, we investigated the transcriptome of adult and neonatal cardiovascular progenitors following culture aboard the International Space Station for 30 days and compared it to the transcriptome of clonally identical cells cultured on Earth. Cardiovascular progenitors acquire a gene expression profile representative of an early-stage, dedifferentiated, stem-like state, regardless of age. Signaling pathways that support cell proliferation and survival were induced by spaceflight along with transcripts related to cell cycle re-entry, cardiovascular development, and oxidative stress. These findings contribute new insight into the multifaceted influence of reduced gravitational environments.


2021 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Aniţa ◽  
Vincenzo Capasso ◽  
Simone Scacchi

AbstractIn a recent paper by one of the authors and collaborators, motivated by the Olive Quick Decline Syndrome (OQDS) outbreak, which has been ongoing in Southern Italy since 2013, a simple epidemiological model describing this epidemic was presented. Beside the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa, the main players considered in the model are its insect vectors, Philaenus spumarius, and the host plants (olive trees and weeds) of the insects and of the bacterium. The model was based on a system of ordinary differential equations, the analysis of which provided interesting results about possible equilibria of the epidemic system and guidelines for its numerical simulations. Although the model presented there was mathematically rather simplified, its analysis has highlighted threshold parameters that could be the target of control strategies within an integrated pest management framework, not requiring the removal of the productive resource represented by the olive trees. Indeed, numerical simulations support the outcomes of the mathematical analysis, according to which the removal of a suitable amount of weed biomass (reservoir of Xylella fastidiosa) from olive orchards and surrounding areas resulted in the most efficient strategy to control the spread of the OQDS. In addition, as expected, the adoption of more resistant olive tree cultivars has been shown to be a good strategy, though less cost-effective, in controlling the pathogen. In this paper for a more realistic description and a clearer interpretation of the proposed control measures, a spatial structure of the epidemic system has been included, but, in order to keep mathematical technicalities to a minimum, only two players have been described in a dynamical way, trees and insects, while the weed biomass is taken to be a given quantity. The control measures have been introduced only on a subregion of the whole habitat, in order to contain costs of intervention. We show that such a practice can lead to the eradication of an epidemic outbreak. Numerical simulations confirm both the results of the previous paper and the theoretical results of the model with a spatial structure, though subject to regional control only.


Author(s):  
Alessandra R. Kortz ◽  
Anne E. Magurran

AbstractHow do invasive species change native biodiversity? One reason why this long-standing question remains challenging to answer could be because the main focus of the invasion literature has been on shifts in species richness (a measure of α-diversity). As the underlying components of community structure—intraspecific aggregation, interspecific density and the species abundance distribution (SAD)—are potentially impacted in different ways during invasion, trends in species richness provide only limited insight into the mechanisms leading to biodiversity change. In addition, these impacts can be manifested in distinct ways at different spatial scales. Here we take advantage of the new Measurement of Biodiversity (MoB) framework to reanalyse data collected in an invasion front in the Brazilian Cerrado biodiversity hotspot. We show that, by using the MoB multi-scale approach, we are able to link reductions in species richness in invaded sites to restructuring in the SAD. This restructuring takes the form of lower evenness in sites invaded by pines relative to sites without pines. Shifts in aggregation also occur. There is a clear signature of spatial scale in biodiversity change linked to the presence of an invasive species. These results demonstrate how the MoB approach can play an important role in helping invasion ecologists, field biologists and conservation managers move towards a more mechanistic approach to detecting and interpreting changes in ecological systems following invasion.


Diversity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 215
Author(s):  
Carl C. Christensen ◽  
Kenneth A. Hayes ◽  
Norine W. Yeung

Freshwater systems are among the most threatened habitats in the world and the biodiversity inhabiting them is disappearing quickly. The Hawaiian Archipelago has a small but highly endemic and threatened group of freshwater snails, with eight species in three families (Neritidae, Lymnaeidae, and Cochliopidae). Anthropogenically mediated habitat modifications (i.e., changes in land and water use) and invasive species (e.g., Euglandina spp., non-native sciomyzids) are among the biggest threats to freshwater snails in Hawaii. Currently, only three species are protected either federally (U.S. Endangered Species Act; Erinna newcombi) or by Hawaii State legislation (Neritona granosa, and Neripteron vespertinum). Here, we review the taxonomic and conservation status of Hawaii’s freshwater snails and describe historical and contemporary impacts to their habitats. We conclude by recommending some basic actions that are needed immediately to conserve these species. Without a full understanding of these species’ identities, distributions, habitat requirements, and threats, many will not survive the next decade, and we will have irretrievably lost more of the unique books from the evolutionary library of life on Earth.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-63
Author(s):  
A. G. Viktorov

The review considers the main stages in the development of genetic method of insect control: 1) The idea of A.S. Serebrovsky, who suggested releasing males with non-viable translocations into nature; 2) "Z-lethal" method of V.A. Strunnikov for control of harmful Lepidoptera, which consists in the release of males carrying two non-allelic recessive mutations in the sex Z-chromosomes into nature; 3) Sterile insect technique (SIT) used widely in practice in the second half of the XX-th century; 4) Genetically engineered biotechnology RIDL (Release of Insects carrying a Dominant Lethal) used in practice to control the invasive mosquito Aedes aegypti , the vector of Zika viruses and yellow fever. It is generalized that the main opponent of the genetic method of insect control is natural selection, which supports females, choosing natural rather than sterile or "genetically modified" males on mating. It follows from the above that genetic methods of control can be effective only in control of invasive species have not spread widely yet.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 148-160
Author(s):  
Arjun C.P ◽  
Anoop V.K ◽  
Tijo K.J ◽  
Anoopkumar T.K ◽  
Roshnath R

Butterfly diversity was recorded from Nov (2013) - May (2014) in Pookode region. A total number of 128 species recorded from the five families; Nymphalidae (46 species) Lycaenidae (28 species), Hesperiidae (22 species), Pieridae (17 species) and Papilionidae (15 species) respectively. During the survey invasive plant species were also recorded. There were 36 species of invasive plants from 18 families identified from the study area. More butterflies were attracted towards nectar offering invasive plants. Chromolaena odorata, Ipomea cairica, Lantana camara, Merremia vitifolia, Mikania micrantha, Mimosa diplotricha, Pennisetumpolystachyon, Pteridium aquilinum, Quisqualis indica and Sphagneticola trilobata were the major invasive plants found in the Pookode region and their flower attracts butterfly for pollination. Even though nectar offered by the plants are supportive for growth, in long run these species can affect butterfly population bydeclining native host larval plant species for butterfly reproduction. Invasive species compete with the native flora and reduce its population. Management practices like physical, chemical and modern bio control measures could be used for eradicating of invasive plants. Wise use of invasive plants for other economical purpose such as bio-fuel, medicinal purpose, bio-pesticide and handicraft could be suggested. Successful management of invasive species are needed for conserving Lepidoptera fauna and other native biota of the area.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (19) ◽  
pp. 6025
Author(s):  
Marcin Dębowski ◽  
Magda Dudek ◽  
Marcin Zieliński ◽  
Anna Nowicka ◽  
Joanna Kazimierowicz

Hydrogen is an environmentally friendly biofuel which, if widely used, could reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions. The main barrier to the widespread use of hydrogen for power generation is the lack of technologically feasible and—more importantly—cost-effective methods of production and storage. So far, hydrogen has been produced using thermochemical methods (such as gasification, pyrolysis or water electrolysis) and biological methods (most of which involve anaerobic digestion and photofermentation), with conventional fuels, waste or dedicated crop biomass used as a feedstock. Microalgae possess very high photosynthetic efficiency, can rapidly build biomass, and possess other beneficial properties, which is why they are considered to be one of the strongest contenders among biohydrogen production technologies. This review gives an account of present knowledge on microalgal hydrogen production and compares it with the other available biofuel production technologies.


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