Screening Some Tef [Eragrostis Tef (Zucc.)Trotter] Accessions/Varieties for Salt Tolerance during Germination and Seedling Stage

Salinity is a continuing problem in the arid and semi-arid tracts of the world. It could be alleviated using irrigation management and/or crop management. However, the former approach is outdated and very expensive. Nevertheless, the latter is economical as well as efficient, and it enables to produce salt tolerant crop lines. But prior to that there is a need to confirm the presence of genetic based variation for salt tolerance among different species or varieties of a particular crop that can thrive under unreliable agro-ecological situations; tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc) Trotter] is one of such crops. Thus fifteen lowland tef genotypes (10 accessions and 5 varieties) were tested during germination and seedling stage at 2dS/m, 4dS/m, 8dS/m, 12dS/m and 16dS/m salinity levels. Distilled water (0dS/m) was used as a control. Data analysis was carried out using SAS package. Germination percentage (GP), germination rate (GR), seedling shoot length (SSL) and seedling root length (SRL) were measured. The analyzed data showed significant variation among most parameters recorded for accessions and varieties (p < 0.01) and for treatments (p < 0.001). Germination rate and seedling root length were more salt affected than final germination percentage and seedling shoot length respectively. The main cause for reduced and delayed germination percentage was osmotic effect. The ion effect was also learned to be minimal. Most accessions and varieties failed to germinate at 12dS/m and 16dS/m salinity levels. Thus, these salt concentrations were not important in screening tef genotypes for salt tolerance. Varieties such as DZ-01-1281, DZ-Cr-358 and accession 236512 were found to be salt sensitive. However, variety DZ-Cr-37 and accessions 237186, 237131 and 212928 were found to be salt tolerant. The rest accessions and varieties were intermediate in their salt tolerance. The study affirmed the presence of broad intraspecific variation among tef accessions and varieties for salt tolerance but more in the former. Key words: Accessions, Germination, NaCl, Salinity, Eragrostis tef

Influence of soil type differences on the distribution of DTPA extractable heavy metals in soils irrigated with industrial effluents

This study determined the effects of the application of industrial liquid waste from a textile factory on the distribution of DTPA extractable metals in a Pelli-Eutric Vertisol and an Eutric Fluvisol at Akaki in Ethiopia, classified according to the FAO-UNESCO Soil Classification System. The Fluvisol is slightly basic on the surface and has sandy clay to clay loam texture, while the Vertisol is strongly basic on the surface, and has clayey texture throughout the profile. Application of the industrial liquid waste modified and increased levels of DTPA metals in the treated Akaki soils compared to natural levels in the background soils. The Fluvisol has more DTPA extractable Fe, Mn, and Zn than the Vertisol. Surface Cu, Cd and Ni contents are higher in the Vertisol opposed to the Fluvisol. However, there is more enrichment of these metals within depth, in the Fluvisol. Pb concentrations in the Fluvisol are about twice as much as the Vertisol throughout the profile. Soil solution pH seems to have the greatest influence for most metals. Surface Cu and Ni of the treated Vertisol are more influenced by organic matter, while on the whole CEC has negative influence on metal availability because of competing ions. These metals generally decrease consistently with depth in the Vertisol, while in the Fluvisol the profile distribution is irregular. Leaching due to coarser textural composition and floodplain soil impacted by the contaminated river sediments are responsible for metal redistribution in the Fluvisol than in the Vertisol. There is thus greater risk of metal uptake by vegetables on the Fluvisol than the Vertisol. Key words/phrases: Background soils, contaminated soils, Fluvisol, industrial waste, Vertisol SINET: Ethiop. J. Sci Vol.26(1) 2003: 47-5

A New Species of Cryptopone Emery (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Ponerinae) from Brazil with Observations of this Genus and a Key for New World Species

The monophyly of Ponerinae was strongly supported by a detailed molecular phylogenetic study. Within the subfamily, substantial changes were yet done to the taxonomy of several genera, such as Cryptopone Emery, and after phylogenetic and morphological considerations, the genus Cryptopone was revived. Cryptopone is a moderately large genus of pantropical distribution, with 25 described species and subspecies, with its diversity centered mostly in East and Southeast Asia. In the New World, only four species were known until now, Cryptopone gilva (Roger), Cryptopone guianensis (Weber), Cryptopone holmgreni (Wheeler) and Cryptopone mirabilis (Mackay &amp; Mackay). Since the Mackay and Mackay’s revision of 2010 of the genus Pachycondyla which included the species currently attributed to Cryptopone, no new species was added to Cryptopone genus in the New World. Recently an unidentified Cryptopone species was collected in the state of Rondônia, Brazil. The material here described was sampled by manual collection of soil in the Floresta Nacional do Jamari (FLONA Jamari). Four individuals belonging to the worker caste are hereafter described under the name of Cryptopone pauli sp. nov. Currently this ant is known only to a single locality in the state of Rondônia, Brazil. This is also the first record of this genus for that state. We present new records of Cryptopone for the Neotropical Region with some comments on its biology and an updated key to workers of the five species of Cryptopone currently known in the New World

Dataset of long-term monitoring of ground-dwelling ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in the influence areas of a hydroelectric power plant on the Madeira River in the Amazon Basin

Background Biodiversity loss is accelerating rapidly in response to increasing human influence on the Earth's natural ecosystems. One way to overcome this problem is by focusing on places of human interest and monitoring the changes and impacts on the biodiversity. This study was conducted at six sites within the influence area of the Santo Antônio Hydroelectric Power Plant in the margins of the Madeira River in Rondônia State. The sites cover a latitudinal gradient of approximately 100 km in the Brazilian Amazon Basin. The sampling design included six sampling modules with six plots (transects) each, totaling 30 sampling plots. The transects were distributed with 0 km, 0.5 km, 1 km, 2 km, 3 km and 4 km, measured perpendicularly from the river margin towards the interior of the forest. For sampling the ground-dwelling ants, the study used the ALL (ants of the leaf litter) protocol, which is standardized globally in the inventories of ant fauna. For the purpose of impact indicators, the first two campaigns (September 2011 to November 2011) were carried out in the prefilling period, while campaigns 3 to 10 (February 2012 to November 2014) were carried out during and after the filling of the hydroelectric reservoir. A total of 253 events with a total of 9,165 occurrences were accounted during the monitoring. The ants were distributed in 10 subfamilies, 68 genera and 324 species/morphospecies. The impact on ant biodiversity during the periods before and after filling was measured by ecological indicators and by the presence and absence of some species/morphospecies. This is the first study, as far as we know, including taxonomic and ecological treatment to monitor the impact of a hydroelectric power plant on ant fauna. New information Until recently, most studies conducted on hydroelectric plants, located in the Amazon Basin, were carried out after the implementation of dams in order to assess their impacts on the environment and biodiversity (Benchimol and Peres 2015, Latrubesse et al. 2017, Sá-Oliveira et al. 2015). Recent studies on dam impacts have begun to be conducted prior to dam implementation (e.g. Bobrowiec and Tavares 2017, Fraga et al. 2014, Moser et al. 2014), thus providing a better overview of the impact and a better assessment of its magnitude. © Fernandes I, de Souza J

New Records of the Dorylinae Ant Genus Cheliomyrmex for the Brazilian Amazon Basin

The Dorylinae subfamily are dominant invertebrate predators in tropical and subtropical terrestrial ecosystems. The most cryptic army ant genus of the New World is Cheliomyrmex. The only specie recognized until now to the Amazon Brazilian Basin is C. andicola, with record in the state of Acre. We provided the first record of Cheliomyrmex megalonyx to Brazil in the Amazon Basin. This record strongly reinforces the idea that more efforts are needed to reveal the diversity, distribution and biology of such hypogaeic ants

Heavy metal content of vegetables irrigated with mixtures of wastewater and sewage sludge in Zimbabwe: Implications for human health

There is growing public concern in Zimbabwe over the illegal cultivation of vegetables on soils amended with sewage sludge or irrigated with admixtures of sewage and sewage sludge. Excessive accumulation of heavy metals in agricultural soils may not only result in environmental contamination, but lead to elevated heavy metal uptake by crops, which may affect food quality and safety. The work reported here studied heavy metal concentrations in crops irrigated with sewage sludge and sewage/sewage sludge admixtures at Firle Municipal Farm in Harare. The crops analysed in this study are heavily contaminated with the four regulated elements Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn. This contamination is at its highest in two of the staple dietary crops maize and tsunga. Tsunga leaves contained 3.68 mg kg-1 Cd, over 18 times the permissible level by the EU standards (0.2 mg kg-1); Cu concentrations were 111 mg kg-1, 5 times the EU Standard (20 mg kg-1); concentrations of Pb were 6.77 mg kg-1, over 22 times the permissible levels allowed by both EU standards and UK guidelines (0.3 mg kg-1); Zn concentrations were 221 mg kg-1, over 4 times the guideline value (50 mg kg-1). The other plants (beans, maize, peppers and sugarcane) also contained concentrations of heavy metals above the permissible levels. Furthermore the concentrations observed in this study were higher than those reported by other workers who have examined vegetation from other contaminated sites. This study highlights the potential risks involved in the cultivation and consumption of vegetables on plots irrigated with sewage sludge, a practice which may place at risk the health of the urban population who consume these vegetables

Effects of Salinity on Yield and Yield Components of tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter] Accessions and Varieties

Abstract: This study aimed to screen fifteen low land tef genotypes (10 accessions and 5 varieties) with respect to yield and yield components at 0dS/m (control), 2, 4, 8 and 16 dS/m salinity levels and data analysis was carried out using SAS package (SAS version 8. On the other hand, accession/variety*treatment interaction effect was significant for MPDW (p&lt;0.001) and SP/MP (p&lt;0.01). This implies that all the accessions and varieties respond to salinity stress differently with respect to these two characters. However, the accession/variety*treatment interaction for the rest characters was insignificant reflecting that the entire varieties and accessions react to salinity stress similarly. Accession 236514, varieties DZ-Cr-358 and DZ-01-1681 were salt sensitive genotypes whereas accession 237186 and variety DZ-cr-37 were salt tolerant genotypes of all. Generally, the study revealed the presence of broad intraspecific genetic variation in tef accessions and varieties for salt tolerance but more in the former. Irrespective of salinity being a growing problem in Ethiopia in general and the Awash valley in particular, only little has been done on crops salt tolerance. Therefore, to alleviate the already existing and the inevitable incoming salinity problem, there should be similar and profound studies on tef and other crops

Contribution to the knowledge of the genus proceratium roger (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Proceratiinae) in the new world

The genus Proceratium Roger comprises rare ants that are irregularly distributed in tropical and temperate regions of the world. Despite this global distribution, these ants are rarely collected, likely due to their cryptobiotic lifestyle. In the New World, the genus comprises 22 known species distributed from Southern Canada to the South of Brazil, and in some Caribbean islands. The taxonomy of the genus Proceratium is here updated for South America. We describe P. amazonicum sp. nov, from Rondônia state and provide distribution data for P. brasiliense, P. convexipes, and P. silaceum. We also present, for the first time, high-resolution images of the P. colombicum type and P. ecuadoriense, and provide a new record of P. micrommatum from Peru, and comment about its morphological variation and distribution. A key for the workers of the P. micrommatum clade is also provided. The species we describe belongs to P. micrommatum clade and represents the second species recorded from Brazil after 60 years, since only P. brasiliense was known previously in the country. © 2019 Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana. All rights reserved

Soil moisture content and maize grain yield under conventional and conservation agriculture practices - results of short term field tests in liselo, Namibia

This article focuses on the results from trials developed to monitor the short-term effects of conventionally tilled systems versus CA on soil quality and crop productivity under conditions of the major cropping systems in central, north-central and north-eastern regions of Namibia. Conventional tillage (CT), Minimum tillage (MT), Minimum tillage, mulch (MT-M), Minimum tillage, rotation (MT-R) and Minimum tillage, mulch and rotation (MT-MR) were the primary treatments tested. Significant differences (p≤0.000) among the treatments were observed in the 0-60 cm soil profiles where MT-M plots had the highest soil moisture content (39.8 mm, Standard Error of Mean 0.2815) over the study period. A significant difference (p=0.0206) in grain yield was observed in the second season with CT plots yielding the highest grain yield (3852.3 kg ha-1, standard error of mean 240.35). Results suggest that CA has the potential to increase water conservation and contribute to reduction of the risk of crop failure. Climate change driven degradation under conventional tillage necessitate alternative sustainable tillage methods. Conservation tillage methods and conservation agricultural practices that minimize soil disturbance while maintaining soil cover need to be adopted more locally as viable alternatives to conventional tillage

REMOTE TEACHING DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: A VIEWPOINT ACCORDING TO PAULO FREIRE’S APPROACH

Objective: to report the authors' experiences during remote teaching in the postgraduate course in Nursing and Health, in the face of the Coronavirus pandemic, from Paulo Freire’s approach.Method: experience report based on direct observation and student participation in curricular activities, between March and June 2021, at a public university in the State of Bahia, Brazil. Data were recorded in a field diary, organized by thematic approach and analyzed through the action-reflection-action process.Results: Three dimensions were identified that revealed the scenery experienced in emergency remote teaching, aimed to ensure the qualification of higher education in health.Conclusion: The conversations during the remote classes pervaded challenges and innovations in planning and in class practice and re-signified the process of characterization of teaching practice. The prospect of offering a high quality course, stimulating the action-reflection-action process in teaching-learning became clear