Airborne eDNA Reflects Human Activity and Seasonal Changes on a Landscape Scale

Recent research on environmental DNA (eDNA), genetic material shed by organisms into their environment that can be used for sensitive and species-specific detection, has focused on the ability to collect airborne eDNA released by plants and carried by the wind for use in terrestrial plant populations, including detection of invasive and endangered species. Another possible application of airborne eDNA is to detect changes in plant communities in response to activity or changes on a landscape-scale. Therefore, the goal of this study was to demonstrate how honey mesquite, blue grama, and general plant airborne eDNA changes in response to human activity on a landscape-scale. We monitored airborne eDNA before, during, and after a rangeland restoration effort that included honey mesquite removal. As expected, restoration activity resulted in a massive increase in airborne honey mesquite eDNA. However, we also observed changes in abundance of airborne eDNA from the grass genus Bouteloua, which was not directly associated with the restoration project, and we attribute these changes to both human activity and seasonal trends. Overall, we demonstrate for the first time that activity and changes on a landscape-scale can be tracked using airborne eDNA collection, and we suggest that airborne eDNA has the potential to help monitor and assess ecological restoration projects, track changes due to global warming, or investigate community changes in response to encroachment by invasive species or extirpation of threatened and endangered species.

Rehabilitating benefits and its sustainability of a degraded semi-arid Rangeland in Yabello Southern Ethiopia

Rehabilitating the degraded rangeland in Ethiopia is very crucial issue for improving the livelihood of pastoralist life style and the environmental sustainability of the country. In Yabello rangeland area the local communities used enclosure method in order to rehabilitate the degraded rangeland area and try to address their livelihood problems. In general the current study tried to assess the benefits obtained from the rehabilitated rangeland area from the three study site chosen through purposively techniques based on the information gathered from different aspect. Semi- structured interview, Focal group discussion was held with key informants and different stakeholders at each kebele level have been conducted to gather information from the total of 150 respondents (50 from each kebele) and analyzed both in qualitative and quantitative approaches. The result showed that the rehabilitated rangeland area mainly used to get both numerical and non-numerical benefits like livestock fattening, grazing purpose, wood cutting and charcoal production and among this livestock fatting is the major source of income across the whole study site and Dida Tuyura (A1) is the most productive site among the rest. From this we recommend that there is a need to enhance market linkages for restored rangeland products that would then drive the adoption of rangeland restoration initiatives and those helps for sustainable utilization of the rehabilitated.

Antioxidant activity of Trifolium resupinatum L. exposed to different extracts from leaves, flowers and shoots of Prangos ferulacea

Prangos ferulacea is a member of Apiaceae family, is a popular fodder for livestock production and an important species in rangeland restoration. The objectives of the research are the comparative phytotoxic activity of aqueous and hydroalcoholic extracts obtained from different organs (flower, shoot and leaf) of P. ferulacea on antioxidant response of Trifolium resupinatum was investigated in a laboratory bioassay. Antioxidant enzyme activities including catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD), ascorbic peroxidase (APX), and superoxide dismutase (SOD), in line with content of malondialdehyde (MDA) and hydrogen peroxide were measured. Results indicated that hydroalcoholic extract of P. ferulaceae flower possess the highest total phenolic content as well as highest phytotoxic effect on T. resupinatum. The highest antioxidant enzyme activity belonged to hydroalcoholic treatment. The treated T. resupinatum seedlings experienced lipid peroxidation at high extract concentrations (12% of hydroalcoholic and 100% of aqueous extract) as evidenced by increased concentration of MDA. In response to this, the activities of SOD, CAT, POD and APX increased at lower extract concentrations but significantly dropped as concentrations increased. According to results of this study, rehabilitation of T. resupinatum sites through the use of P. ferulaceae will probably not be successful.