Biomass production

The state of Rajasthan is situated between 23o3’ and 30o12’ N latitude and 69o30’ and 78o17’ E longitude . The total land area of the state is about 3,24,239 km2 , out of which about 1,98,100 km2 is arid and the rest semi arid. The physical features are characterized mainly by the Aravallis and to the some extent by the vindhyan formation, and the Deccan trap. A major portion of western Rajasthan has desert soils and sandy plains. Sand dunes occupy a greater part of western Rajasthan ( 1,20, 983 km2). The soils of the desert plains are loamy sand to loam and the eastern part has alluvial soil which supports good forests and agricultural crop. Occurrence of saline soils with pH up to 9.0 is a common feature in the sandy areas of Rajasthan. The average annual rainfall in the state is 525-675 mm, and the annual precipitation in different tracts of Rajasthan varies from 13 mm to 1766 mm. Out of the total area , forests cover only about 37,638 km2 and are rich in biodiversity. Rajasthan ...

For centuries, land degradation triggered by deforestation has occurred in Ethiopia, in particular in the northern regional state Tigray, the area under study. In order to change this situation, the local government started to establish enclosures. In these sites, grazing is no longer permitted so that forest can naturally regenerate. In order to develop sustainable yield planning for forest rehabilitation

The influence of NaCl salinity on growth, dry-matter production and leaf photosynthesis of seedlings of Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehnh. and Dalbergia sissoo Roxb. was studied by imposing 4 levels (40, 80, 120 and 160 mM) of NaCl in pot culture. Salinity up to 160 mM did not affect plant survival, but did affect plant growth and dry-matter production depending upon the species and salt concentration. NaCl reduced leaf number and dry-weight of all the plant components, but increased stem dry-weight, especially in E. camaldulensis. Salinization also stimulated total dry-matter production at all the salinity levels in E. camaldulensis but only at 40 mM in D. sissoo. The two species varied in protein and chlorophyll concentration and in leaf photosynthetic rate. Protein and chlorophyll concentration of the plants fell at all the levels of NaCl, except at 40 mM, where stimulation in the photosynthetic carbon assimilation of the plants occurred. However, no distinct relationship between leaf photosynthetic rate and dry-matter production was found. The study indicated that low salt concentrations generally stimulated growth, biomass production and rate of photosynthesis in both the species, and E. camaldulensis appeared more NaCl salt-tolerant than D. sissoo.

Extensive communication occurs between plants and microorganisms during different stages of plant development in which signaling molecules from the two partners play an important role. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emission by certain plant-growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) has been found to be involved in plant growth. However, little is known about the role of bacterial VOCs in plant developmental processes. In this work, we investigated the effects of inoculation with twelve bacterial strains isolated from the rhizosphere of lemon plants (Citrus aurantifolia) on growth and development of Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings. Several bacterial strains showed a plant growth promoting effect stimulating biomass production, which was related to differential modulation of root-system architecture. The isolates L263, L266, and L272a stimulated primary root growth and lateral root development, while L254, L265a and L265b did not significantly alter primary root growth but strongly promoted lateral root formation. VOC emission analysis by SPME-GC-MS identified aldehydes, ketones and alcohols as the most abundant compounds common to most rhizobacteria. Other VOCs, including 1-octen-3-ol and butyrolactone were strain specific. Characterization of L254, L266 and L272a bacterial isolates by 16S rDNA analysis revealed the identity of these strains as Bacillus cereus, Bacillus simplex and Bacillus sp, respectively. Taken together, our data suggest that rhizospheric bacterial strains can modulate both plant growth promotion and root-system architecture by differential VOC emission.

In this paper two methods for energy analysis and environmental accounting (Gross Energy Requirement and Emergy Synthesis) are critically discussed in order to explore their ability to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the performance and environmental sustainability of human-dominated production processes. In order to allow a quantitative comparison, two cropping systems, namely 1 ha of corn production in Italy, and 1 ha of willow production in Sweden, are investigated by means of the parallel application of both methods. The case studies are carried out by performing a quantitative inventory of both natural and economic input flows to the investigated cropping systems. Such input flows are then converted into embodied energy (MJ) as well as emergy (seJ) units. Finally, performance indicators representative for each method are calculated. Results provided by the two methods and their respective theoretical features are compared and discussed in order to point out limits and potentialities of both approaches. The study shows that the two methods account for different – although complementary – categories of input flows, use different conversion factors, and answer to different questions and concerns. Gross Energy Requirement focuses on fossil fuel use and is capable to support the development of more efficient use of commercial energy. Emergy Synthesis uses broader spatial and time frames and accounts for both natural and economic resources. In so doing, it takes into consideration different forms of energy, materials, human labor and economic services on a common basis, offering larger potentiality to explore the sustainable interplay of environment and economy.

Removal of hazardous metals through biological means has received considerable attention in the last few decades. Nevertheless, only a fraction of these studies employed growing microbial cells that harbor multiple mechanisms of metal sequestration and thus may hold greater metal uptake capacities. The authors summarize the studies concerning response of growing cells to metals toxicity in terms of growth rate, biomass production, and morphological/structural adaptations along with latest reports involving genomics and proteomics approach. The studies indicate bright potential of metal resistant strains or strains with hormesis phenomenon for field application. In the second part of the review they focuses on the effect of nutritional conditions and process parameters on metal removal capacities and the performance in simultaneous removal of multiple pollutants. Reports demonstrating effective treatment of actual industrial effluents using growing cells have been summarized. With ample evidence available on the success of growing cells in metal bioremediation, the development and testing of large scale industrial bioreactors is warranted.

The state of Rajasthan is situated between 23º3' and 30º12' N latitude and 69º30' and 78º17' E longitude . The total land area of the state is about 3,24,239 km² , out of which about 1,98,100 km² is arid and the rest semi arid. The physical features are characterized mainly by the Aravallis and to the some extent by the vindhyan formation, and the Deccan trap. A major portion of western Rajasthan has desert soils and sandy plains. Sand dunes occupy a greater part of western Rajasthan ( 1,20, 983 km²). The soils of the desert plains are loamy sand to loam and the eastern part has alluvial soil which supports good forests and agricultural crop. Occurrence of saline soils with pH up to 9.0 is a common feature in the sandy areas of Rajasthan. The average annual rainfall in the state is 525-675 mm, and the annual precipitation in different tracts of Rajasthan varies from 13 mm to 1766 mm. Out of the total area , forests cover only about 37,638 km² and are rich in biod...

Interception of light by a canopy is a fundamental requirement for crop growth and is important for biomass production and plant growth modeling. Solar radiation is an important parameter for photosynthesis and evapotranspiration. These two phenomena are dependent not ...

h -1 m -1 , 21% em C1 e 63% em C2; e, para 0,48 m3 h-1 m-1, 70% em C1 e 57% em C2; porém, para a taxa 0,36 m3 h-1 m-1 constatou-se, em ambas as camadas, aumento na referida variável: 8% em C1 e 59% em C2. Para avaliar a capacidade da forrageira em remover P efetuaram-se 3

Soil water and temperature conditions were simulated for three years at three sites in the Netherlands, using a model named SOIL. Observed water table depths from one site with a sandy loam soil indicated bypass flow in macropores. Nitrogen turnover was simulated using the output of SOIL as input to a nitrogen model. To improve the nitrogen model, a crop-growth submodel was introduced, and simulations were compared with measured data for two seasons and three fertilizer treatments at the three sites. Mineral-N in the soil after application of fertilizer was substantially higher in the simulation than indicated by measurements in 4 out of 18 simulations. Regression analyses showed that simulated mineral-N content in the uppermost metre explained 64% of the observed variation. The corresponding values for nitrogen content (N ta) and biomass (W ta) of aboveground tissues were 86 and 93%, respectively. With a few exceptions annual values ofW ta andN ta were simulated with an accuracy of approximately 20%. A sensitivity test showed that growth parameters and especially the light use efficiency parameter strongly influenced biomass production for fertilized treatments whereas the control of nitrogen uptake from soil was most important for non-fertilized treatments.

The aim to prepare and present this paper is to highlight the source, management and quantification of the unintentional POPs in an unindustrialized least developing landlocked small country Nepal. The methodology adopted for this is the review of the relevant research documents and national initiative towards addressing this issues complemented with sharing of the first hand experience from the implementation of the POPs management activities undertaken by our organization. Nepal is a small country of size 147181 sq.km but having large sources of POPs including unintentional POPs (PCDD/Fs) mainly because of weak enforcement of the existing environment related laws, standards and international commitment including POPs Convention. Country became homes to about 75 tons of Obsolete Pesticide since last 30 years including about 44 percent (33 tons out of 75) are of known POPs. These obsolete pesticides including identified POPs have been poorly stored in some about 25 locations through...

The water balance and growth of Eucalyptus grandis hybrid plantations in Brazil are presented based on 6 years of intensive catchment hydrology, physiological and forest growthsurveying, and modelling. The results show a balance between water supply by precipitation and output through evapotranspiration (considered as canopy interception, soil evaporation and trees transpiration) and runoff. The annual average precipitation was 1147 mm