Zooplankton fauna

The zooplankton population consists of minute animals living freely in water with limited powers of locomotion and is more or less drifted passively by water currents. Almost every major group of animals, either as adults, larvae or as both has its representatives in planktonic existence. Many of the commercially important prawns, mussels, other shellfishes and finfishes start their life as plankters. The communities of zooplankton form the vital intermediary link in the food chain of the sea both as consumers of the primary producers and as contributors to the higher trophic level. Many species are proven indicators of pollution, water mass, cold, warm, surface or deep waters, upwelling characteristics and of the coastal or estuarine environment depending on the time of their occurrence and the ambient ecological parameters

Responsible Factors of Panic Buying: An Observation From Online Media Reports

Background: Panic buying is an erratic human behavior that has been reported irregularly and episodically. There is a dearth of studies exploring the identifiable factors accounting for it. We aimed to identify the factors responsible for panic buying extracted from online media reports. Methods: We scrutinized the media reports published in English discussing the different aspects of panic buying. We collected data until May 30, 2020, and searched the possible mentioned reasons responsible for panic buying. Results: We analyzed a total of 784 media reports. The majority of the reports were found in Bing (18%), Ecosia (12.6%), Google (26.4%), and Yahoo (12.5%). Panic buying was reported in 93 countries. Among the 784 responses, a total of 171 reports did not explain the responsible factors of panic buying. Therefore, we analyzed the remaining 613 reports to identify the same. A sense of scarcity was reportedly found as the important factor in about 75% of the reports followed by increased demand (66.07%), the importance of the product (45.02%), anticipation of price hike (23.33%), and due to COVID-19 and its related factors (13.21%). Other reported factors were a rumor, psychological factors (safety-seeking behavior, uncertainty, anxiety reduction, and taking control), social learning, lack of trust, government action, and past experience. Conclusions: The study revealed the responsible factors of panic buying extracted from media reports. Further, studies involving the individuals indulging in panic buying behavior are warranted to replicate the findings

Breeding Drought-Tolerant Pearl Millet using conventional and genomic approaches: Achievements and prospects

Pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.] is a C4 crop cultivated for its grain and stover in crop-livestock-based rain-fed farming systems of tropics and subtropics in the Indian subcontinent and sub-Saharan Africa. The intensity of drought is predicted to further exacerbate because of looming climate change, necessitating greater focus on pearl millet breeding for drought tolerance. The nature of drought in different target populations of pearl millet-growing environments (TPEs) is highly variable in its timing, intensity, and duration. Pearl millet response to drought in various growth stages has been studied comprehensively. Dissection of drought tolerance physiology and phenology has helped in understanding the yield formation process under drought conditions. The overall understanding of TPEs and differential sensitivity of various growth stages to water stress helped to identify target traits for manipulation through breeding for drought tolerance. Recent advancement in high-throughput phenotyping platforms has made it more realistic to screen large populations/germplasm for drought-adaptive traits. The role of adapted germplasm has been emphasized for drought breeding, as the measured performance under drought stress is largely an outcome of adaptation to stress environments. Hybridization of adapted landraces with selected elite genetic material has been stated to amalgamate adaptation and productivity. Substantial progress has been made in the development of genomic resources that have been used to explore genetic diversity, linkage mapping (QTLs), marker-trait association (MTA), and genomic selection (GS) in pearl millet. High-throughput genotyping (HTPG) platforms are now available at a low cost, offering enormous opportunities to apply markers assisted selection (MAS) in conventional breeding programs targeting drought tolerance. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology, micro-environmental modeling, and pearl millet whole genome re-sequence information covering circa 1,000 wild and cultivated accessions have helped to greater understand germplasm, genomes, candidate genes, and markers. Their application in molecular breeding would lead to the development of high-yielding and drought-tolerant pearl millet cultivars. This review examines how the strategic use of genetic resources, modern genomics, molecular biology, and shuttle breeding can further enhance the development and delivery of drought-tolerant cultivars

Panic buying: An insight from the content analysis of media reports during COVID-19 pandemic

Background: Panic buying is an emerging phenomenon observed during, but not restricted to, pandemic. Aim: We aimed to evaluate the nature, extent, and impact of panic buying as reported in the media. Methods: This study was conducted by collecting the information from the English media reports published till 22nd May 2020. A structured format was developed to collect data. Searching was done by using the keyword “panic buying”. We have excluded the social media posts discussing the panic buying. Results: The majority of media reporting was from the USA (40.7 %), and about 46 % of reports highlighted the scarce item. Approximately 82 % of the reports presented the causes of panic buying whereas almost 80 % report covered the impact of it. About 25.7 % of reports highlighted the rumor about panic buying and only 9.3 % of reports blamed the government. Only 27.1 % reports described the remedial measures, 30.8 % reports conferred the news on the psychology behind panic buying and 67.3 % news displayed the images of empty shelves. Conclusion: A high proportion of reports on panic buying have been found from the developed countries discussing the causes & impact of panic buying on the basis of expert opinion

Media portrayal of panic buying: A content analysis of online news portals

Objectives: Media reporting has an influential role in panic buying (PB). We aimed to evaluate the media portrayal of PB during this COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We searched, collected, and analysed the news reports from the English media discussing the PB events. The search was done between 23 and 30 May 2020. Results: A total of 525 news reports were analysed. Approximately half (49.3%) discussed the government action to handle the situation, 36.4% discussed the expert opinion regarding PB, 20.6% discussed the psychology of PB, 21.5% discussed the rumours, and 18.5% suggested remedial measures. Concerning the negative aspects, 96.6% of the titles mentioned panic buying, 75.4% mentioned the cause, and 62.3% mentioned the photos of empty shelves. The media in low–middle-income countries are 1.5 times more likely to include expert opinion (p = 0.03), 2.1 times more likely to discuss rumours regarding PB (p = 0.001), almost thrice more likely to report the cause of PB (p = 0.001), and thrice more likely to mention its impact (p = 0.001). Conclusion: Media has been portraying more negative aspects of PB. Further, there are variations in reporting patterns between highincome and low–middle-income countries

Breeding Drought-Tolerant Pearl Millet Using Conventional and Genomic Approaches: Achievements and Prospects

Pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.] is a C4 crop cultivated for its grain and stover in crop-livestock-based rain-fed farming systems of tropics and subtropics in the Indian subcontinent and sub-Saharan Africa. The intensity of drought is predicted to further exacerbate because of looming climate change, necessitating greater focus on pearl millet breeding for drought tolerance. The nature of drought in different target populations of pearl millet-growing environments (TPEs) is highly variable in its timing, intensity, and duration. Pearl millet response to drought in various growth stages has been studied comprehensively. Dissection of drought tolerance physiology and phenology has helped in understanding the yield formation process under drought conditions. The overall understanding of TPEs and differential sensitivity of various growth stages to water stress helped to identify target traits for manipulation through breeding for drought tolerance. Recent advancement in high-throughput phenotyping platforms has made it more realistic to screen large populations/germplasm for droughtadaptive traits. The role of adapted germplasm has been emphasized for drought breeding, as the measured performance under drought stress is largely an outcome of adaptation to stress environments. Hybridization of adapted landraces with selected elite genetic material has been stated to amalgamate adaptation and productivity. Substantial progress has been made in the development of genomic resources that have been used to explore genetic diversity, linkage mapping (QTLs), markertrait association (MTA), and genomic selection (GS) in pearl millet. High-throughput genotyping (HTPG) platforms are now available at a low cost, offering enormous opportunities to apply markers assisted selection (MAS) in conventional breeding programs targeting drought tolerance. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology, micro-environmental modeling, and pearl millet whole genome re-sequence information covering circa 1,000 wild and cultivated accessions have helped to greater understand germplasm, genomes, candidate genes, and markers. Their application in molecular breeding would lead to the development of high-yielding and drought-tolerant pearl millet cultivars. This review examines how the strategic use of genetic resources, modern genomics, molecular biology, and shuttle breeding can further enhance the development and delivery of drought-tolerant cultivars

Association between winter anthocyanin production and drought stress in angiosperm evergreen species

Leaves of many evergreen angiosperm species turn red under high light during winter due to the production of anthocyanin pigments, while leaves of other species remain green. There is currently no explanation for why some evergreen species exhibit winter reddening while others do not. Conditions associated with low leaf water potentials (Ψ) have been shown to induce reddening in many plant species. Because evergreen species differ in susceptibility to water stress during winter, it is hypothesized that species which undergo winter colour change correspond with those that experience/tolerate the most severe daily declines in leaf Ψ during winter. Six angiosperm evergreen species which synthesize anthocyanin in leaves under high light during winter and five species which do not were studied. Field Ψ, pressure/volume curves, and gas exchange measurements were derived in summer (before leaf colour change had occurred) and winter. Consistent with the hypothesis, red-leafed species as a group had significantly lower midday Ψ in winter than green-leafed species, but not during the summer when all the leaves were green. However, some red-leafed species showed midday declines similar to those of green-leafed species, suggesting that low Ψ alone may not induce reddening. Pressure–volume curves also provided some evidence of acclimation to more negative water potentials by red-leafed species during winter (e.g. greater osmotic adjustment and cell wall hardening on average). However, much overlap in these physiological parameters was observed as well between red and green-leafed species, and some of the least drought-acclimated species were red-leafed. No difference was observed in transpiration (E) during winter between red and green-leaved species. When data were combined, only three of the six red-leafed species examined appeared physiologically acclimated to prolonged drought stress, compared to one of the five green-leafed species. This suggests that drought stress alone is not sufficient to explain winter reddening in evergreen angiosperms

The Elenadu Shortcrown Brachystelma elenaduense Sathyan. (Asclepiadaceae) - a new distribution record for Tamil Nadu, India

This paper describes the additional distributional record of Brachystelma elenaduense Sathyan., collected from the Eastern Ghat fragments viz., Kolli hills of Namakkal and Yercaud hills of Salem Districts. This plant species was earlier reported from Elenadu village of Tumkur district, Karnataka by Dr. M.B.Sathyanarayanachar in 1978. However, its occurrence in Tamil Nadu, as described in the present paper, is reported for the first time. A detailed description and plant images are provided to aid its identification.</p

Water Stress Detection in Pearl Millet Canopy with Selected Wavebands using UAV Based Hyperspectral Imaging and Machine Learning

The major bottleneck in plant phenotyping is the assessment of thousands of genotypes under field conditions, which can be accelerated through Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) based sensing. Phenotyping for complex traits such as abiotic stress (drought) adaptation can be explored more precisely through the rich spectral information acquired by Hyperspectral Imaging (HSI) sensors. HSI sensors can identify plant water stress early by observing the changes in canopy reflectance due to drought. This study used a UAV-based HSI sensor in the 400-1000 nm range to identify canopy water stress in the pearl millet crop. Five Machine learning-based Feature Selection (FS) methods were used to identify the top-ranked ten wavebands sensitive to canopy water stress. Wavelengths around 692, 714-716, 763-769, 774-882, 870, and 949 nm were repeatedly selected by two or more FS methods. The Recursive feature elimination method with the Support vector machine (SVM) classifier outperformed the other FS methods in selecting the best bands subset. SVM classifier with linear kernel on the selected bands could classify two water stress levels with 95.38% accuracy and early detect stress with 80.76% accuracy in the pearl millet canopy. This study will benefit the agriculture sector by accelerating crop phenotyping using UAV-based HSI