Plant plastome are well studied due to their essential roles in photosynthesis and plant development. Comparative studies among plastome of closely related genera or families are limited, hindering our understanding of evolutionary changes and adaptation. This study presents a comparative analysis of 23 Caryophyllaceae plastome revealing a dynamic interplay of conserved and variable features.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHydrocotyle himalaica from Bhutan, a perennial herb that thrives from 1500 to 2600 m, possesses both ecological importance and medicinal properties. The plastome analysis revealed a length of 153,383 bp, showing variation from conspecific taxa in China. Its standard structure comprises two IR regions (18,336 bp IRa and 18,336 bp IRb), an LSC region of 97,944 bp, and an SSC region of 18,767 bp, with a GC content of 37.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe investigated methane (CH) and nitrous oxide (NO), two important greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions using the closed chamber method from a flooded rice field in Brahmaputra valley of Assam, northeast part of India. We tried to understand the factors responsible for the emission and identify appropriate agro-technologies for their mitigation. Various factors like water level, drainage management, soil organic carbon management, crop management, fertilizer amendment, cultivar type etc.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIndustrial processes and municipal wastes largely contribute to the fluctuations in iron (Fe) content in soils. Fe, when present in unfavorable amount, causes harmful effects on human, flora, and fauna. The present study is an attempt to evaluate the composition of Fe in surface soils from paper mill and municipal landfill sites and assess their potential ecological and human health risks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnhancement of crop yield, conservation and quality upgradation of soil, and efficient water management are the main objectives of sustainable agriculture and mitigating climate change's impact on agriculture. In recent days, biochar, obtained via thermochemical alteration of biomass is becoming a powerful agent for soil and water quality improvement, carbon sequestration, greenhouse gas emission reduction, and heavy metal adsorption. The present study predominantly focuses on various process parameters related to biochar preparation through pyrolysis, their impact on biochar production as well as physicochemical characteristics, and the optimization of such process parameters.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: L. a member of the Vitaceae family, is an important medicinal plant with widespread application in Indian traditional medicines. L.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe cardinal focus of this study is to optimize the best reaction conditions for maximizing laccase activity from spent mushroom waste (SMW) of Pleurotus florida. Optimization process parameters were studied by the modeling techniques, artificial neural networking (ANN) embedded in particle swarm optimization (PSO), and response surface model (RSM). The best topology of ANN-PSO architecture was obtained on 4-10-1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe primary source of soil pollution is a complex mixture of numerous inorganic and organic compounds (including chlorinated compounds, nutrients, and heavy metals, etc.). The presence of all of these compounds makes remediation and cleanup difficult.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study aimed to assess the influence of municipal solid waste (MSW) disposal on soil microbial communities. Soil samples from 20 different locations of an MSW dumping site contaminated with toxic heavy metals (HMs) and a native forest (as control) were collected for phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) profiling to predict microbial community responses towards unsegregated disposal of MSW. PLFA biomarkers specific to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, fungi, eukaryotes, actinomycetes, anaerobes, and microbial stress markers-fungi: bacteria (F/B) ratio, Gram-positive/Gram-negative (GP/GN) ratio, Gram-negative stress (GNStr) ratio and predator/prey ratio along with AMF spore density and the total HM content (Cu, Cr, Cd, Mn, Zn, and Ni) were assessed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUrgent and innovative strategies for removal of persistent organic micropollutants (OMPs) in soil, groundwater, and surface water are the need of the hour. OMPs detected in contaminated soils and effluents from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are categorized as environmentally persistent pharmaceutical pollutants (EPPPs), and endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), their admixture could cause serious ecological issues to the non-target species. As complete eradication of OMPs is not possible with the extant conventional WWTPs technology, the inordinate and reckless application of OMPs negatively impacts environmental regenerative and resilience capacity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB) that can withstand high cadmium (Cd) stress is a desired combination for bioremediation. This study evaluated the Cd bioremediation potential of four PSB strains isolated from the contaminated soils of a municipal solid waste (MSW) discarding site (Guwahati, India). PSB strains were cultured in Pikovskaya (PVK) media, which led to higher acid phosphatase (ACP) activity and the release of organic acid.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSustainable management of natural resources plays a critical role in poverty alleviation and overall socio-economic development. North East (NE) India is blessed as a biodiversity hotspot, being also home to around 150 ethnic tribes with diverse ethical, cultural and traditional beliefs, endorsing the region as a cultural paradise rich in natural resources and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). Conversely, the severely constrained nature of TEK, has juxtaposed TEK practices and sustainable natural resources management (NRM) in this review.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSoil quality management through effective utilization of agricultural residue is the cynosure of intense global research. Therefore, we have explored the pyrolytic conversion of a locally available agricultural residue, the areca nut husk (AH), into biochar (BC) as a sustainable option towards residue management. The AH was carbonized at 250-400 °C, and residence times of 30-90 min.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHeavy metals (HMs) accumulation in the soils poses risks towards the environment and health. Glomalin related soil protein (GRSP) produced by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) has metal-sorption and soil aggregation properties and is critical in the survival of plants and AMF. For the first time, this study attempted to examine the GRSP mediated bio-stabilization of HMs in soils contaminated with municipal solid wastes (MSW).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCapF, a capsule-producing enzyme expressed by , binds NADPH and exists as a dimer in the aqueous solution. Many other capsule-producing virulent bacteria also express CapF orthologs. To understand the folding-unfolding mechanism of CapF, herein a recombinant CapF (rCapF) was individually investigated using urea and guanidine hydrochloride (GdnCl).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAssessing the relationship between soil enzyme activities (SEAs) and heavy metals (HMs) without any amendment has rarely been conducted in soils contaminated with municipal solid wastes (MSW). Five soil enzymes [dehydrogenase (DHA), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), acid phosphatase (ACP), urease (UR), and nitrate reductase (NR)] have been assessed for HMs bioremediation using Zea mays L. grown in unamended soils that were contaminated with different types of MSW.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnscientific municipal solid waste (MSW) dumping provokes heavy metal (HM) associated ecological and human health hazards through heightened bioavailability and bioaccumulation. In this study, we focused on three important HMs Cadmium (Cd), Copper (Cu) and Nickel (Ni) and their geochemical fractions, to enable clutter free data management, analysis and interpretation. Stratified random soil sampling was carried out from twenty different locations around a Ramsar site (Deepor Beel) in Guwahati, India.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConservation of soil health and crop productivity is the central theme for sustainable agriculture practices. It is unrealistic to expect that the burgeoning crop production demands will be met by a soil ecosystem that is increasingly unhealthy and constrained. Therefore, the present review is focused on soil amendment techniques, using biochar in combination with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), which is an indispensable biotic component that maintains plant-soil continuum.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe main aim of this work is to assess the extent of soil contamination, potential ecological and health risks associated with the disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW) near a Ramsar site in Assam, India. Soil samples were collected and analysed for three heavy metals (HMs), namely, chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn) and zinc (Zn). The sources of HMs and their pollution levels were evaluated using different indices.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study reports the environmental fate and ecological hazard of the three heavy metals (HMs), viz. copper (Cu), manganese (Mn) and zinc (Zn) in soil influenced by municipal solid waste (MSW) dumping. The experimental site is situated in the vicinity of Deepor Beel, a Ramsar site located in Guwahati, India.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Yamuna is one of the most polluted rivers in India and the land adjacent to river flowing through Delhi city is widely irrigated with its water for growing various food crops. Present study was undertaken to assess the heavy metal load in Yamuna water and surrounding soils of the river bank and its impact on soil enzyme activities. Long term impact of irrigation by Yamuna water on the activities of various soil enzymes namely dehydrogenase (DHA), urease (UA), fluroscein diacetate (FDA), aryl sulphatase (ASA), nitrate reductase (NRA), microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and potentially mineralizable nitrogen (PMN) were assessed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThere is dearth of studies on climate change based vulnerabilities of the urban people. It has been a matter of widespread debate whether nature of livelihood has any role to play in regulating the vulnerabilities of an individual. To find an answer, in a first ever attempt, this study tested three different approaches viz.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAccurate detection of unique herbs is crucial for herbal medicine preparation. Zingiberaceae species, which are important in Ayurvedic medicine of India, are often misidentified in Northeast (NE) Indian herbal markets. (Zingiberaceae) is one of the major components of popular Ayurvedic drugs used for rheumatic diseases (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe studied the effects of tillage and straw management on soil aggregation and soil carbon sequestration in a 30-year split-plot experiment on clay soil in southern Finland. The experimental plots were under conventional or reduced tillage with straw retained, removed or burnt. Wet sieving was done to study organic carbon and soil composition divided in four fractions: 1) large macroaggregates, 2) small macroaggregates, 3) microaggregates and 4) silt and clay.
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