Earticle

We studied natural and plantation forest ecosystem of Sarguja in Chhattisgarh, India in order to understand how vegetation biomass, carbon stock and its allocation patterns vary among the sites. For this, stratified random sampling was opted to measure the different layers of vegetation. Wide floral diversity was found in the natural forest site as compared to the teak stand. Overall, 17 tree species found in natural forest comprising 8 families while in the teak stand 6 species were recorded. In understory strata 23 species were recorded (18 herbs and 5 shrubs) in natural forest whereas in teak stand 20 herb species and 3 shrubs were found. Great variation was also seen in the population dynamics of the different vegetation stratum in concerned sites. The sapling, seedling and herb density was found to be highest in natural stand while tree and shrub density was more in teak stand. Results indicated that stand biomass of the natural site was 321.19 t ha-1 while in the teak stand it was 276.61 t ha-1. The total biomass of tree layer in plantation site was 245.22 t ha-1 and natural forest 241.44 t ha-1. The sapling, seedling, shrub and forest floor biomass was found highest under natural forest as compared to the teak plantation site. Carbon stock has similar trend as that of biomass accumulation in natural forest and teak stand. Higher biomass accumulation and carbon stock were recorded in the higher girth class gradation of the population structure. Proper efforts are required to manage these diverse ecosystems to obtain higher biomass and sustainable ecological services.

Quantitative information on biomass and available nutrients are essential for developing sustainable forest management strategies to regulate atmospheric carbon. An attempt was made at Chilapatta Reserve Forest in Duars region of West Bengal to quantify its above and below ground carbon along with available “N”, “P” and “K” in the soil. Stratified random nested quadrats were marked for soil, biomass and litter sampling. Indirect or non-destructive procedures were employed for biomass estimation. The amount of these available nutrients and organic carbon quantified in soil indicates that the forest soil is high in organic carbon and available “K” and medium in phosphorus and nitrogen. The biomass, soil carbon and total carbon (soil C＋C in plant biomass) in the forest was 1,995.98, 75.83 and 973.65 Mg ha-1. More than 90% of the carbon accumulated in the forest was contributed by the trees. The annual litter production of the forest was 5.37 Mg ha-1. Carbon accumulation is intricately linked with site quality factors. The estimated biomass of 1,995.98 Mgㆍha-1 clearly indicates this. The site quality factor i.e. tropical moist deciduous with optimum availability of soil nutrients, heavy precipitation, high mean monthly relative humidity and optimum temperature range supported luxuriant growth which was realized as higher biomass accumulation and hence higher carbon accumulated.

In Botswana, mopane worms are widely harvested for household consumption. They are also traded for income generation. Urban based entrepreneurs’ source mopane worms from rural areas to sell. The price of sourcing mopane worms from the harvesters has increased quite incredibly in villages. However, there is dearth of academic studies on the commercialisation of mopane worms in Botswana. This paper uses primary data collected from multiple sources to investigate the factors influencing the prices of mopane worms. Data collection involved administration of questionnaires to purposively selected harvesters in four campsites in the Central District, focus group discussions at each campsite and key informant interviews. The results show that there is declining population of mopane worms. The decline is attributable to such factors as over-harvesting and climate change which are the main factors influencing the price of mopane worms. In addition to physical scarcity of mopane worms, institutional weaknesses exist in the study area. The Agricultural Resources Conservation Act is ineffective and the majority of the harvesters are unaware of its existences. It is recommended that the regulations on the harvesting of mopane worms be reviewed. In order to benefit harvesters, mopane worms should be processed to add diversified economic value to rural communities.

At present the biodiversity of the riparian forest is under threat due to various anthropogenic pressures. Hence study was conducted along the three unprotected zones of riparian forest in Dikhu river, Nagaland, north-east India in order to compared the diversity, distribution and population structure of riparian trees. In each zone 100×100 m2 plot were marked and subdivided into 20 plots of 10×10 m2. 10 plots on each side of the river were taken randomly covering 0.02 ha. Only tree with dbh ≥10 cm and dbh above 1.5 m above ground level were recorded as individual species. A total of 29 tree species belonging to 18 families were recorded from the three zones of the river. Tree species richness was highest at the middle zone (19) followed by upper (14) and lower zone (7). The most abundant species and family recorded at upper, middle and lower zones were Melia azaderach of Euphorbiaceae (380 stems ha-1), Terminalia chebula of Euphorbiaceae (432.5 stems ha-1) and Duabanga grandiflora of Lythraceae (365 stems ha-1) respectively. The ranges of diversity indices observed in the three zones were: Shannon-Wiener index (1.25-0.73), Simpson diversity index (0.42-0.93), Evenness index (0.47-0.37) and Index of co-dominance (0.75-0.94). Rest of other indices were also estimated and compared. Distribution of trees shows the contagious pattern common in the upper and middle zones and regular in the lower zone. The girth size class analysis demonstrated that the riparian forest is in less mature succession stage. This study emphasize the need for management and conservation of riparian forest by developing policy to declare the riparian zone as protected area to prevent further degradation and loss of biodiversity from these unregulated zones along the river.

This study aims to explore the knowledge structure of the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) research during the period of 1952-2017. Data was collected from Google Scholar and Research Information Service System (RISS), and a total of 482 author keywords from 125 papers from peer-reviewed scholarly journals were retrieved. Co-word analysis was applied to examine patterns and trends in the leopard cat research by measuring the association strengths of the author keywords along with the descriptive analysis of the keywords. The result shows that the most commonly used keywords in leopard cat research were Felidae, Iriomte cat, and camera trap except for its English and scientific name, and camera traps became a frequent keyword since 2005. Co-word analysis also reveals that leopard cat research has been actively conducted in Southeast Asia in conjugation with studying other carnivores using the camera traps. Through the understanding of the patterns and trends, the finding of this study could provide an opportunity for the exploration of neglected areas in the leopard cat research and conservation.

The effect of basal nutrients concentrations and exogenous auxin for root induction from leaves of Sedum takesimense were investigated for mass-propagation. Root induction rates were significantly different from the concentrations of basal salts but not influenced by supplemented IBA in the medium. The lowest concentration of MS basal salts (1/10) was most effective to induce roots from leaves followed 1/5 MS, and 1/2 and full strength MS medium. Supplement of IBA 10 M in the medium did not improve the root induction that resulted no differences compare to the hormone free media. Rooted leaves were transplanted in soil and survived in greenhouse.

Elemental carbon (EC) and organic carbon (OC) mass concentrations in PM2.5 were measured from March through October 2015 in Taehwa Research Forest (TRF). The concentration of carbon in the TRF was 3.4 g/m3 and the concentration of EC was 1.4 g/m3. Also the concentration of OCsec was the highest at 2.84 g/m3 in the summer and the lowest at 1.66 in the spring. The ratio of the secondary generation OC in the total OC was the highest at 62% in the summer. Monthly OC concentration was the lowest at 2.38 g/m3 in April and the highest at 6.60 g/m3 in July. In case of EC concentration was the lowest in April (0.98 g/m3) and the highest in July (3.41 g/m3). The OC/EC ratio showed the lowest ratio in March and the highest rate in September. It is suggested that the secondary generation reaction of OC component was active due to sufficient irradiation amount in summer.

Great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) have been growing on a large scale since they settled on Jokja Island in Lake Paldang in 2010. In 2017, 827 breeding nests were found in Jokja Island and the breeding success rate was 2.60±0.23 per nest. Nestling tree did not show any specificity for the species and was severely damaged. As the nesting materials for cormorants, branches and leaves, which were easy to come by around the island, were used. Most of their prey were fish in Lake Paldang. The population the great cormorants showed high breeding success rate, indicating that Jokja Island was a good site for breeding. Thus, it shows that continuous research for them needs to be done.

To know if small changes in rearing water temperature and density affect the number of bacterial and fungal colonies in metamorphosed frogs, Dybowski’s frog tadpoles were reared from Gosner 25-26 stages at either low (1°C low to ambient water temperature), ambient, or high (1°C high) water temperature (each 15 tadpoles in 20 L water) condition and at either low (10 tadpoles/20 L water), medium (20 tadpoles), or high (30 tadpoles) density condition. Immediately after metamorphosis, we sampled bacteria and fungi from skin, liver, and heart of six metamorphosed frogs, randomly selected for each treatment group. After separate incubation of bacteria and fungi on 3M Petrifilm plates, we counted the number of bacterial and fungal colonies appeared on the plates and compared the numbers among the temperature and density treatment groups. For temperature treatment, high-temperature group had fewer bacterial colonies, while low-temperature group had more fungal colonies than the other two groups. For density treatment, low-density group had fewer bacterial colonies than the other two groups, but the number of fungal colonies were not different among the groups. Our results suggest that small increased rearing water temperature and lowered rearing density could potentially reduce pathogens in farming frogs.

Preliminary investigation and analysis of the effectiveness of controlling the number of ecosystem disturbance fishes residing in Togyo reservoir using the native carnivorous fish species were performed. The data were collected from August 2011 to November 2016. The release of native carnivorous fish species was carried out from the end of May, 2012 to the end of July, 2016, considering fishing ban period of Siniperca scherzeri. The comparative abundance of Lepomis macrochirus was found to be 12.8% in the first year and increased a little bit after releasing the native carnivorous fish. However, it decreased to 3.9% in the last year showing a value of less than 5%. On the other hand, the Micropterus salmoides populations tended to increase after the release of native carnivorous fish species. This seems to be the result of the segregation of habitat by interspecific competition with S. scherzeri. The M. salmoides moved from inside of the lake to edges, and to influent tributaries. Stable isotope analysis showed that Channa argus had the highest levels of nutrition, S. scherzeri and M. salmoides were in competition, and L. macrochirus was used as a feed source for released species. Changes of the fish community in the Togyo reservoir was represented by the rank abundance curves based on the results of the fish fauna. As a result, the fish group in incoming tributaries are somewhat disturbed after the release of the native carnivorous species. Similarly, the fish group in the reservoir were disturbed as well but it’s gradually stabilizing afterwards. Therefore, the control of the ecosystem disturbance species using the native carnivorous fish of Korea is effective and helps to stabilize the fish community in the lake.

The long-tailed goral (Naemorhedus caudatus) has slowly recolonized habitats in South Korea. Because it is necessary to know the status of groups in recolonized areas, we determined detection frequencies and group sizes using camera trapping, a non-invasive monitoring method. In Uljin, a far southern goral habitat in South Korea, we used a Moultrie 5.0 camera and mineral block as bait during the breeding season in BaekAm Mountain (148 days, 18 May to 11 October) and Geumjong Mountain (63 days, 18 May to 18 July) in 2010. Totally, 155 images were captured in BaekAm Mountain, whereas four images were captured in Geumjong Mountain. The species was most frequently detected at sunrise (05:00-08:00) and sunset (18:00-20:00). Through population structure evaluation, we identified at least 11 individuals, including one solitary mature male, four females, four kids, and two solitary subadults in BaekAm Mountain. However, in Geumjong Mountain, we identified only two individuals (female with kid). Monitoring efficiency in the recolonized area differed depending on population density and habitat conditions. Because we could evaluate the population structure, and behavioral patterns in the study sites, monitoring using camera traps could be applied for the recolonized habitats in South Korea.

Mass production of forest medicinal plants is related to quality control of raw medicinal materials. Plant tissue culture is an important technology to produce high-quality plant materials. Numerous factors are reported to influence the success of in vitro regeneration of medicinal plants. Embryogenesis is known to be the most effective techniques and it has developed in some medicinal plant species. Various in vitro cultural condition for direct and/or indirect somatic embryogenesis systems have developed in Epimedium koreaum, Bupleurum falcatum, Paeonia lactiflora, Chrysanthemum zawadskii, Houttuynia cordata etc. In this study, we provide the present statue and information of in vitro propagation techniques that is able to apply as an efficient system for rootstock propagation system of forest medicinal plants.

Loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) is widely distributed in the southern part of the United States and it has been used as a major economic species in the region due to its excellent growth and stem straightness. The tree also grows only in the southern part of Korea because it is susceptible to cold. Recently climate changes have had widespread impacts on forest trees. Thus, the use of good quality seeds is prerequisite for assessing assisted migration adaptation trial. In this study, we conducted to investigate its cone and seed characteristics of each family, which is expected to improve seeds productivity for planting valuable timber trees. A total of 14 families were selected from the experimental forest in Boseong, Jeonnam province in 1981. The seed production capacity was estimated to range from 87.2 to 129.4 among families and the average was 111.3. The number of aborted ovules was investigated in the range of 11.4 to 29.5 for the first test and 7.4 to 22.2 for the second test. The average number of empty and filled seeds was 1.4 and 79.2 per cone, respectively. Based on the results, we can conclude that there is a strong correlation between the number of fertile scale and the seed production ability.

This study proposes a strategy for the creation and management of urban forests in Paju Heyri art village. Urban forest composition attributes (4 categories and 16 items) were extracted and the questionnaire was asked to the level and the current level for tourists, local residents and workers in Paju Heyri art village. And the priority order for the creation of urban forests was derived through the difference between the present level (performance) and the required level (importance) and the requirements analysis procedure. In this study, the priorities of each item of urban forest formation attributes were determined. The t-test alone had limitations, so we calculated the Borich needs which were not covered by the existing Importance - Performance Analysis (IPA). We used the Locus for Focus Model, which is a method for visually confirming the difference between the current level and the required value for the required level in the 4-quadrant coordinate plane. The results of this study show that the seven priorities can be used as a useful tool for the formulation of urban forests and operational strategies and can be a basic research for the activation of urban forests in the future.

Rabies causes the highest mortality of all viral diseases in the world unless the victim has been protected either by active immunization or post-exposure immunoprophylaxis. Infected stray dogs, raccoons, skunks, foxes and bats are the demonstrated carriers of most cases of rabies. It is difficult to diagnose a rabid animal in the field unless characteristic clinical signs are evident. However, this study used a commercial fast check kit comprised of immunochromatographic test (ICT) strips (ICTS) to diagnose rabies infection in clinically suspected samples obtained from a wildebeest. A 10-year old male wildebeest (approximate weight, 150 kg) died at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Safari (BSMS) Park, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh with a clinical history of severe excitation and abundant oral secretions. A gross pathological examination revealed no specific lesions indicating any fatal diseases. The entire brain was collected within 6 hours of death, and the brain sample was tested using the ICT strips following the manufacturer’s directions. The rabies viral antibody was detected within the brain stem and medulla of the brain tissue of the dead wildebeest.