• Title/Summary/Keyword: Rainforest

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Morphological Variations in Tetrapleura tetraptera Taub. (Fabaceae) Fruits and Seed Traits from Lowland Rainforest Zones of Nigeria: A Keystone Non Timber Forest Tree Species in the Tropics

  • Aishat Adeola Olaniyi;Samuel Olalekan Olajuyigbe;Musbau Bayo Olaniyi
    • Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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    • v.40 no.2
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    • pp.111-117
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    • 2024
  • An evaluation was carried out on variability in morphology of fruits and seeds (number and weight) of Tetrapleura tetraptera (Schumach. and Thonn.) Taub. from different populations across its distribution range in Nigeria. Bulk fruit samples were collected and examined for variations in morphological characters. Differences in morphological character of fruits and seeds among the populations were determined using analysis of variance at 5% level of probability. The relationships among morphological characters were determined using Pearson correlation coefficient (r). Significant variations (p<0.05) existed among T. tetraptera populations for all the evaluated characters: fruit length, fruit width, number of seeds per fruit and seed weight. A positive significant strong correlation (r=0.96) was found between seed weight and number of seeds per fruit, while no correlation existed between fruit length, width and number of seeds. Seed weight was positively correlated with minimum altitude (r=0.97) and maximum altitude (r=0.99) of seed populations. Number of seeds was also significantly correlated with maximum altitude (r=0.965). There was no significant correlation between geo-climatic variables and fruit dimensions (length and width). Observed variations in morphological traits within and across populations of T. tetraptera may be used as proxy to estimate genetic diversity and selection of superior trees for improved productivity.

Assessment of Timber Harvest in Tropical Rainforest Ecosystem of South West Nigeria and Its Implication on Carbon Sequestration

  • Adekunle, Victor A.;Lawal, Amadu;Olagoke, Adewole O.
    • Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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    • v.30 no.1
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    • pp.1-14
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    • 2014
  • Timber harvest in natural forests and its implications on carbon sequestration were investigated in the Southwestern Nigeria. Data on timber harvest from forest estates for a 3-year period were collected from the official record of States' Forestry Department. The data registered the species, volume and number of timbers exploited during the study period. The data were analyzed accordingly for rate of timber harvest and carbon value of the exploited timbers using existing biomass functions. Values were compared for significant differences among states using one way analysis of variance. The results showed that the most exploited logs, in terms of volume and number of trees, have the highest amount of carbon removal. There was a variation in type of timber species being exploited from each state. The total number of harvested trees from Oyo, Ondo, Ogun, Ekiti and Osun were estimated at 100,205; 111,789; 753; 15,884 and 18,153 respectively. Total quantity of carbon removed for the 3-year period stood at 2.3 million metric tons, and this translated to 8.4 million metric tons of $CO_2$. The annual carbon and $CO_2$ removal therefore were estimated at 760,120.73 tons and 2.8 million tons/ year respectively. There were significant differences (p<0.05) in the amount of $CO_2$ removed from the five states. Based on our result, we inferred that there is increasing pressure on economic tree species and it is plausible that they are becoming scarce from the forests in Southwestern Nigeria.. If the present rate of log removal is not controlled, forests could become carbon source rather than carbon sink and the on biological conservation, wood availability and climate change may turn out grave. For the forest to perform its environmental role as carbon sink, urgent conservation measures and logging policies are needed to be put in place.

Effect of Explant Types, Auxin Concentration and Light Condition on In Vitro Root Production and Alkaloid Content of Rauvolfia serpentina (L.) Benth. ex Kurz

  • Yahya, Andi Fadly;Hyun, Jung-Oh;Lee, Jae-Ho;Jung, Myung-Suk
    • Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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    • v.96 no.2
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    • pp.178-182
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    • 2007
  • Rauvolfia serpentina (L.) Benth. ex Kurz is a medicinal plant and an endangered tropical rainforest plant species. Since the field cultivation that aims to fulfill the industrial needs is never accomplished, tissue culture appears to be the most feasible way to improve the quality and quantity of R. serpentina. This experiment used two kinds of explants (roots and shoots) to induce optimal root formation in different combinations of auxin and photoperiod. Each explants exhibited different responses on given treatments. Differentiated root could be produced from explants cultured in IBA 20 mg/L with and without light. The highest number of roots, root length and root weight induced from shoot explants were effective on MS medium containing IBA 20 mg/L and incubated under dark condition, while highest total weight (callus and root) from root explants cultured on MS medium supplemented 10 mg/L IBA and 10 mg/L NAA and incubated under day length (11/13 hr). The root induced from shoot explants produced the highest major alkaloid content. The highest content of ajmaline (2.17 ppm fresh weight) and reserpine (1.30 ppm fresh weight) were observed in shoot explants cultured in MS medium containing combination of IBA 10 mg/L and NAA 10 mg/L and incubated under dark condition, yohimbine (1.47 ppm fresh weight) was in the shoot explants cultured in MS medium containing NAA 20 mg/L and incubated under day length, while serpentine was absent.

An Endophytic Nodulisporium sp. from Central America Producing Volatile Organic Compounds with Both Biological and Fuel Potential

  • Syed, Riyaz-Ul-Hassan;Strobel, Gary;Geary, Brad;Sears, Joe
    • Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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    • v.23 no.1
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    • pp.29-35
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    • 2013
  • A Nodulisporium sp. (Hypoxylon sp.) has been isolated as an endophyte of Thelypteris angustifolia (Broadleaf Leaf Maiden Fern) in a rainforest region of Central America. It has been identified both on the basis of its morphological characteristics and by scanning electron microscopy as well as ITS sequence analysis. The endophyte produces volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that have both fuel (mycodiesel) and use for biological control of plant disease. When grown on potato dextrose agar, the organism uniquely produces a series of ketones, including acetone; 2-pentanone; 3-hexanone, 4-methyl; 3-hexanone, 2,4-dimethyl; 2-hexanone, 4-methyl, and 5-hepten, 2-one and these account for about 25% of the total VOCs. The most abundant identified VOC was 1,8 cineole, which is commonly detected in this group of organisms. Other prominent VOCs produced by this endophyte include 1-butanol, 2-methyl, and phenylethanol alcohol. Moreover, of interest was the presence of cyclohexane, propyl, which is a common ingredient of diesel fuel. Furthermore, the VOCs of this isolate of Nodulisporium sp. were selectively active against a number of plant pathogens, and upon a 24 h exposure caused death to Phytophthora palmivora, Rhizoctonia solani, and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and 100% inhibition to Phytophthora cinnamomi with only slight to no inhibition of the other pathogens that were tested. From this work, it is becoming increasingly apparent that each isolate of this endophytic Nodulisporium spp., including the Daldina sp. and Hypoxylon spp. teleomorphs, seems to produce its own unique set of VOCs.

A Study of Ecotourism Activated Gede Pangrango National Park in Indonesia (인도네시아 그데 빨랑오(Gede Pangrango) 국립공원의 생태관광 활성화방안 연구)

  • Jeong, Kyongyeon;Byun, Byungseol
    • Journal of Wetlands Research
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    • v.15 no.1
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    • pp.139-147
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    • 2013
  • This study is thing about eco-tourism activated Mt. Gede Pangrango National Park in Indonesia. Indonesia is full of eco-tourist resources with the possession of the tropical forest. Particularly, Gede Pangrango National Park on the west of Java island has so plenty of bio-diversity that the UNESCO designated this park as the World Biosphere Reserve. By virtue of this, various visitors all over the world are visiting Gede Pangrango Park for doing research, education, hiking and camping. However, Indonesia lags behind other countries in convenience facilities for visitors, so their visiting programs are actually insufficient. In order for eco-tourism to be revitalized, there should be physical improvement in visiting facilities, management of a variety of visit programs, and local residents' participation & projects to increase the income of local residents. This study is going to seek for the environment-friendly management plan suited for the properties of the park and improvement plan for eco-visiting facilities by closely grasping the actual condition of the eco-tourism of Gede Pangrango National Park.

Mechanical Properties of Fly Ash Geopolymer Concrete Incorporating Bamboo Ash (대나무 재를 혼합한 플라이에쉬 지오폴리머 콘크리트의 물리적 특성에 대한연구)

  • Ishak, Shafiq;Lee, Han-Seung
    • Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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    • 2019.11a
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    • pp.33-34
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    • 2019
  • Malaysia, as a tropical rainforest country, enjoys an abundance of bamboo plant that proliferate throughout the country. The application of geopolymer technology has become a trend and preserve the environment from harm. Fly ash geopolymer concrete has low early strength and requires 24 hours for the concrete to harden. Thus, the presence of calcium and potassium content in bamboo ash could remedy this problem. Besides, there is no research regarding the use of bamboo ash as a binder in geopolymer concrete. Therefore, the presence of bamboo ash could improve the research field with the use of agriculture waste in a building construction. This research aim is to use bamboo ash in the production of fly ash geopolymer concrete. The specimens were casted in $100mm{\times}100mm{\times}100mm$ cubes and sodium based activator were used as the alkaline solutions. The binders are formulated with different binder ratio. All test specimens were cured at ambient temperature ($23^{\circ}C-25^{\circ}C$) and 100% fly ash was chosen as control specimen. To determine the mechanical properties of fly sh geopolymer concrete with the presence of bamboo ash, compressive strength test was conducted. The test results depicted that as the percentage of bamboo ash decreases, compressive strength increases. Also, the addition of 5% of bamboo ash into fly ash geopolymer concrete could improve the early strength in 7 days. The results were proven with the result explained by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Therefore, it can be concluded that the addition of bamboo ash improved the properties of fly ash geopolymer concrete at early ages.

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Modification of Microclimate to Improve Milk Production in Tropical Rainforest of Thailand

  • Suriyasathaporn, W.;Boonyayatra, S.;Kreausukon, K.;Pinyopummintr, T.;Heuer, C.
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.19 no.6
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    • pp.811-815
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    • 2006
  • The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of electric fan installation for milk production improvement of dairy cattle in Thailand. The study was conducted using 2 small-holder dairy farms in Chiang Mai province, during April to August 2004. Electric fans were installed in front of each row of cows. Each of the two rows of cows in the barn was defined as an experimental unit, thus each farm had two experimental units. The fans were operated alternately in 7-day intervals between rows of cows within each farm during the day or between 8.00 am to 8.00 pm. Non-operation periods were used as control. Milk yields were recorded. Data on environmental temperature and humidity were obtained from Chiang Mai Meteorological Center. Result from statistically analysis of milk record suggested an interaction between lactation period and fan installation. Therefore, this interaction term of lactation period and fan installation (PERIOD_FAN) was added as a variable to the regression model. Due to the repeated data collection of milk yield from the same cow (alternate week), milk yield was analyzed by repeated measure analysis (Mixed model). Least square means were calculated for all levels and used to compare between each pair-wise values. The final data were collected from the total of 18 cows with 2,072 data. Overall means and SEM of milk yields and days in milk separated into farm were $14.7{\pm}0.06kg/day$ and $176.3{\pm}2.2days$, and $15.2{\pm}0.22kg/day$ and $202.5{\pm}3.7$ days for farm A and farm B, respectively. For multivariable analysis, only PERIOD_FAN and humidity were significantly associated with milk yield. Only the first period of lactation showed that the amount of milk yields during fan installation was higher than that of non-fan installation (p<0.05). Cows with fan installation produced approximately 1.2 kg/cow more milk than cows without fan installation during this period. In conclusion, the use of electric fan operated during the day time increased milk production of cows during the first period of lactation.

Verification of Kompsat-5 Sigma Naught Equation (다목적실용위성 5호 후방산란계수 방정식 검증)

  • Yang, Dochul;Jeong, Horyung
    • Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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    • v.34 no.6_3
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    • pp.1457-1468
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    • 2018
  • The sigma naught (${\sigma}^0$) equation is essential to calculate geo-physical properties from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images for the applications such as ground target identification,surface classification, sea wind speed calculation, and soil moisture estimation. In this paper, we are suggesting new Kompsat-5 (K5) Radar Cross Section (RCS) and ${\sigma}^0$ equations reflecting the final SAR processor update and absolute radiometric calibration in order to increase the application of K5 SAR images. Firstly, we analyzed the accuracy of the K5 RCS equation by using trihedral corner reflectors installed in the Kompsat calibration site in Mongolia. The average difference between the calculated values using RCS equation and the measured values with K5 SAR processor was about $0.2dBm^2$ for Spotlight and Stripmap imaging modes. In addition, the verification of the K5 ${\sigma}^0$ equation was carried out using the TerraSAR-X (TSX) and Sentinel-1A (S-1A) SAR images over Amazon rainforest, where the backscattering characteristics are not significantly affected by the seasonal change. The calculated ${\sigma}^0$ difference between K5 and TSX/S-1A was less than 0.6 dB. Considering the K5 absolute radiometric accuracy requirement, which is 2.0 dB ($1{\sigma}$), the average difference of $0.2dBm^2$ for RCS equation and the maximum difference of 0.6 dB for ${\sigma}^0$ equation show that the accuracies of the suggested equations are relatively high. In the future, the validity of the suggested RCS and ${\sigma}^0$ equations is expected to be verified through the application such as sea wind speed calculation, where quantitative analysis is possible.

Characteristics and Controlling Factors on Nickel Laterite Deposits in Sulawesi, Indonesia (인도네시아 술라웨시 니켈 라테라이트 광상의 특성과 광화 규제 요인)

  • Younggi Choi;Byounghan Kim
    • Economic and Environmental Geology
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    • v.56 no.3
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    • pp.343-363
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    • 2023
  • Sulawesi island, as a global producer of nickel resources, is leading the rapid growth of nickel industry of Indonesia. Nickel laterite deposits in Sulawesi was formed by lateritization of the world-scale East Sulawesi Ophiolite (ESO) under the active tectonic setting and tropical rainforest climate. In this paper, exploration cases for nickel laterite deposits in five regions of Sulawesi are reported. Regional characteristics on nickel laterite deposits in Sulawesi are understood based on various exploration activities such as outcrop, trench and pit survey, petrological observation, geochemical analysis, and interpretation of drilling data, etc.. In the northeastern part of 'Southeast-Arm', which is a strategic location for nickel industry of Indonesia, ESO is extensively exposed to the surface. In the Morombo and Morowali regions, typical high-grade saprolite-type orebodies with a thickness of 10 to 20 m occur. The cases showed that topographic relief tends to regulate Ni-grade distribution and orebody thickness, and that high grade intervals tend to occur in places where joints and garnierite veins are dense. In the Tinanggea and South Palangga regions in the southern part of the Southeast-Arm, overburden composed of Neogene to Quaternary deposits is a major factor affecting the preservation and profitability of nickel laterite deposits. Despite the overburden, high-grade saprolite-type orebodies composed of Ni-bearing serpentine with garnierite veins occur in a thickness of around 10 m to secure economic feasibility. In contrast, in the Ampana region in the northern part of 'East-Arm', low-grade nickel laterite deposits with immature laterite profile was identified, which is thought to be the result of active denudation due to tectonic uplift. Exploration cases in this paper will help to understand characteristics and controlling factors on nickel laterite deposits in Sulawesi, Indonesia.