Growth evaluation of in-vitro propagated seeds and shoot tips of Mansonia altissima (A Chev.) A Chev

This research work aimed at developing protocol for in-vitro propagation of Mansonia altissima. Cultureinitiation experiment involved four treatments (Control (distilled water), 25 %, 50 % and 100 % Murashige and Skoog (MS) basal medium) with ten replications. The shoot regeneration involved 2 x 3 x 2 factorial treatments with five replications. Factors were two MS media strengths (Half and Full), three Benzyl Amino Purine (BAP) levels (0, 1.0 and 2.0 mg/L) and two explant types (shoot tips and lower stem). Root induction experiment consisted four treatments (0, 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 mg/L Naphthalene Acetic Acid) with five replications in MS medium. All treatments were laid out in completely randomised design. The results showed that 100 % seed germination was obtained in distilled water only and 100 % MS basal medium at 2 weeks after inoculation (WAI). However, 25 % MS medium gave highest support for shoot growth of the seed plantlets in terms of shoot length (6.22 cm) and adventitious roots (33.5) at 3 WAI. The explants were best regenerated using full strength MS medium, 1.0 mg BAP/L and shoot tips with highest average number of leaves (3.2) at 8 WAI. None of the rooting treatments induced any root on the plantlets at 12 WAI. It could be inferred that culture of M. altissima could be initiated in-vitro using seeds on sterile distilled water or 25 % MS basal medium while its shoot-tips could be best regenerated when sub-cultured on 100 % MS basal medium supplemented with 0.1 BAP mg/L.Keywords: Culture-initiation, Protocol, Root induction and Shoot regeneratio

Demand for, and Supply of Credit in Nigerian Banking Sector

The study investigated the determinant of the volume of demand and supply of credit in the banking industry in Nigeria 1986 and 2007.     The study utilized secondary data. Annual time series data covering the period 1986 to 2007 on bank credit supply, lending rate, saving deposit ratio, nominal exchange rate, liquidity ratio, numbers of banks and loan-to-deposit ratio. The result showed that LDR and SDR were the primary drivers behind changes in the supply and demand for credit in the banking sector as they exhibited some degree of sensitivity to changes that are statistically significant (t = 2.56, p < 0.05) and (t = -2.70, p < 0.05) respectively. The conclusions drawn from the finding is that the neo-liberal economic policy prescriptions such as financial sector reforms, most often, failed to work through the postulated channels for developing countries like Nigeria. Thus, the policy package should only be adopted with modifications within the context of existing and prevailing social, macroeconomic and political situations in the country.  Therefore, within the range of factors that can lead to credit rationing in Nigeria, asymmetric or imperfect information is expected to become less relevant. Key words: Credit, demand and supply, banking, regulatio

Growth pattern and specificity of attachment of lagoon crab (Callinectes amnicola) fouled with barnacles (Chelonibia patula) from Lagos Lagoon, Southwest Nigeria

The growth pattern and condition factor (K) of 810 Lagoon crabs (Callinectes amnicola) fouled with Barnacles (Chelonibia patula), collected from Makoko Jetty, off Lagos Lagoon between April-September 2011 were studied. The carapace length f C. amnicola examined ranged from 3.8cm-8.6cm while the carapare width ranged from 9.5cm-15.4cm. The total weight ranged from 53.1g to 165.0g, indicating that increase in length correspond to increase in weight, thereby suggested that C. amnicola from Lagos Lagoon exhibited a negative allometric growth. The correlated coefficient 'r' for the crabs was 0.68, showing a low correlation between carapace length weight in the lagoon crabs fouled with barnacles. The condition factor (K) values of C. amnicola fouled with barnacles ranged from 3.2-9.7 with a mean value of 5.4. The highest K-value was recorded for the size group 3.5-4.4. The value decreased with increased length of C. ammcola. The sex ratio (1:80) indicated that there were more females (98.8%) than males (1.2%), 12 (1.5%) of the 810 lagoon crabs examined were heavily fouled with barnacles distributed all over the points of attachment with the cora having the most attachment (91.6 6%). Average diameter of the barnacles attached to the crabs ranged from 0.23cm to 1.85cm. The distribution shows that large-sized crabs had much banacles attached to them than small-sized crabs, with greater barnacles found in the females than in the males

In-vitro development of Nauclea diderrichii (de Willd. & Th. Dur) Merrin liquid-M Smedia supplemented with benzyl amino purine (BAP) and naphthalene acetic acid (NAA)

The growth of plantlets in Temporary Immersion Bioreactor system (TIBs) relies on initial successful liquid phase transition process. The response of N. diderrichii explants was assessed in liquid-M Smedia with a view to mass produce its seedlings using TIBs. Seven treatments consisting (A) 0.0/0.0, (B) 0.0/0.1, (C) 0.1/0.0, (D) 0.2/0.1, (E) 0.3/0.2, (F) 0.4/0.3 and (G) 0.5/0.4mg/lBAP/NAA combinations were studied. Each group consist of seven replicates and group A without Growth Regulators (GR) serves as control. The results at 4 Weeks after Inoculation (WAI) showed that effects of the growth regulators were significant on shoot length and number of adventitious shoots while number of roots and leaves were closely related. Treatment E produced highest number of adventitious shoots (3.6) which was higher than 0.9 shoots from treatment G and closely related to others. Maximum number of leaves (16.6) was produced by treatment F followed by E (15.7) while the least (12) was obtained in treatment A. The highest number of roots (4.9) was obtained from treatments B, followed by E (4.3) with the lowest being recorded in C (2.43). Liquid MS medium supplemented with 0.3/0.2mg/lBAP/NAA shows some promise for plantlets generation for the purpose of multiple shoot production of N. diderrichii in TIBs

Assessment of Land Use/Cover Change Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques: A Case of Osogbo and Its Peripheral Areas in Nigeria

The importance of accurate and timely information describing the nature and extent of land resources and changes over time is increasing, especially in rapidly growing city areas. Landsat satellite imageries of three different time periods, i.e., Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) of 1982, 2000 and 2018 were acquired by Global Land Cover Facility Site (GLCF) and earth explorer site, quantify the changes in the Osogbo and its peripheral areas from 1982 to 2018 over a period of 36 years. These data sets were imported in ArcGIS 10.3, ERDAS Imagine and IDRIS Selva, satellite image processing softwares to create a false colour composite (FCC), supervised classification methodology was employed using maximum likelihood technique. The images of the study area were categorized into four different classes namely Core-urban, Peri-urban, Vegetation, water body. The results indicate that during the last thirty-six (36) years, Core-Urban land and water body have been increased by 2.74% (38.20 km2) and 0.98% (13.69 km2) while Peri-Urban land, and vegetation cover have decreased by 0.35% (5.00 km2), and 3.36 % (46.87 km2), respectively. The results quantify the land cover change patterns in the city and its peripheral area and demonstrate the potential of multitemporal Landsat data to provide an accurate, economical means to map and analyse changes in land cover over time that can be used as inputs to land management and policy decisions

Growth response of Pterocarpus soyauxii Taub. seedlings to compost application under varied watering frequency

The impact of climate change as evident in many African countries include limited supply of water and desertification among others. Mitigating such effects partly required planting tree species capable of tolerating drought or extreme weather patterns. In view of this, the growth response of P. soyauxii seedlings to compost application under varied watering frequency was investigated. The experiment was 3 x 4 factorial treatments with 6 replicates laid out in a split plot completely randomized design. The first factor consisted 3 watering frequencies (watering once a week, two weeks and three weeks) while second factor included 4 levels of Aleshinloye compost (0, 45, 90, and 135 kg N/ha). Data collected include stem heights, stem diameter and number of leaves at interval of four weeks starting from four weeks after transplanting (WAT). Moisture contents and dry matter yields were obtained at 24th WAT. Analysis of variance results indicated that there was significant difference among the watering frequencies. Seedlings watered once a week had better growth in terms of stem diameter (6.66 mm), stem heights (42.7 cm), number of leaves (18.81), root (2.77g), shoot (6.16g) and total dry weights (8.92g) than those watered once in two weeks which was higher than those watered once in three weeks at 24 WATS. The effects of various compost rates were not significantly different from control on all the parameters. The interactive effects of both factors showed that the seedlings performed best when watered once a week under compost rate of 45 kg N/ha in terms of stem heights (49.1 cm), number of leaves (20.74), dry weights; root (3.5g), shoot (6.63g) and total dry weights (10.14g), Moisture contents; root (60.07 %) and total moisture content (123.5 %). Prolonged watering frequencies (intervals of 14 and 21 days) were too extreme for the optimum growth and adaptation of P. soyauxii seedlings. Watering of P. soyauxii seedlings for at least once in a week with application of compost at 45 kg N/ha is recommended to be adequate in order to maintain and sustain its growth during plantation establishment.Keywords: compost application, watering frequency, optimum growth, moisture conten

Change Detection Analysis and Deforestation Rates in Oluwa Forest Reserve, Ondo State, Nigeria

Land use and land cover (LULC) intensified by the conversion of natural resources for food purpose, urbanization, and other socioeconomic benefits as affected forest reserves and made them undergo rapid, wide-ranging changes. This study examined the use of GIS and remote sensing techniques to gain a quantitative understanding of the spatiotemporal dynamics of LULC. Maximum likelihood classifier approach was used to detect LULC changes in the study area of 1989 to 2019 using three Landsat images from 1989, 2004 and 2019. The observed changes were indicative of a decrease in the expanse of the forested area of (1989 to 2004), with 1989 having (89.2%) and 2004 (74.1%) with a differential range loss of (-15.1%), and a differential annual rates of deforestation of (-1.236436715). During the following 15 years (2004 to 2019) the annual rate of deforestation has increased to (1.303364215) with year 2019 recording (90.1%). The overall annual deforestation rate in the forested area of the studied period (1989-2019) is 0.033464, which implies that there is a percentage gain in forest. It is observed in this study that the highest deforestation rate was registered between 1989 and 2004. Non-forest occupied 10.8% in 1989 increasing in year 2004 by25.9% with a positive annual rate of change (5.831312231) and negative annual rate of change (-6.411388077) between 2004 to 2019, meaning there was loss in nonforest cover. The overall annual deforestation rate in the non - forested area of the studied period (1989-2019) is -0.29004. According to this evolution, the annual rate of deforestation was estimated to be (0.033464%) for the three defined periods in the forested area. So therefore to avoid drivers leading to changes in land use land cover stressing the complexity that is related to sustainable management of protected areas, urgent action is necessary to reduce loss of biodiversity due to deforestation and land degradation

Effects of different media strengths and hormone concentrations on in-vitro regeneration of Vitellaria paradoxa C.F. Gaertn

The importance of Vitellaria paradoxa has necessitated its inclusion in the ongoing afforestation project which requires mass production of its seedlings. The shea-butter tree produces oil-rich seeds that are important to cosmetic and food and nutrition industries. It is a deciduous tree which could survive in the dry-savannah and help withstand desert encroachment. However, overexploitation of its timber for firewood and charcoal production made it vulnerable. In-vitro propagation of this species could be a viable means towards its mass propagation. Two plant-hormones: Gibberellic Acid (GA3) and Benzyl Amino Purine (BAP) were used to grow the plant in different combinations making up six treatments (A-F) with 6 replicates in each group. The combinations include 1.5/0, 1.5/1.0, 1.5/1.5, 2.0/0, 2.0/1.0, 2.0/1.5 mg/L of GA3/BAP, which were used to grow 2cm nodal cuttings of the V. paradoxa on half-strength Murashige and Skoog (MS) media. Treatment F (with 2.0/1.5 mg/L GA3/BAP) produced the highest number of leaves (2.4 ± 0.6, 3.2 ± 0.8) and longest shoot length (1.1 ± 0.3 cm, 1.4 ± 0.5 cm) at 4 and 8 Weeks After Inoculation (WAI), respectively. The results of this study showed that application of growth- enhancing hormones for the regeneration of important tree species could provide means for their mass propagation so as to meet the need for afforestation projects. Keywords: Vitellaria paradoxa, Afforestation, In-vitro propagation, Mass propagation