African Journal of Ecology and Ecosystems

African Journal of Ecology and Ecosystems ISSN 2756-3367 Vol. 12 (3), pp. 001-013, March, 2025. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals

Review

Conservation Status and Management of Prunus Africana: A Review of Threats and Strategies

Luke Jimu

Department of Environmental Science, Bindura University of Science Education (BUSE), P. Bag 1020, Bindura, Zimbabwe. E-mail: [email protected].

Accepted 21 January, 2025

The world’s PRUNUS AFRICANA bark demand used to be satisfied by exports, approximately 4000 tonnes per year from a few African countries, led by Cameroon exporting 62%, Madagascar, 20% and Uganda and Equatorial Guinea, 7% each. This coupled with unsustainable bark harvesting methods created pressure on the natural resource which suffered population decline and resulted in the species listing in Appendix II of CITES and EU’s bark export ban. In other range countries where no commercial harvesting has taken place, the species is under threat from other anthropogenic threats which include local use, deforestation and habitat fragmentation which is affecting populations in Ethiopia, Madagascar, Zimbabwe and South Africa as well as Cameroon, Uganda and Equatorial Guinea. Wildfires burn P. AFRICANA seedlings, saplings and mature trees throughout the species’ range every year. Invasive alien species have mainly affected P. AFRICANA populations in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Climate change is projected to affect populations in southern Africa and Madagascar than those in East and West Africa. The fact that the threats vary or are common among countries calls for different or similar P. AFRICANA conservation strategies respectively. Strategies may vary from country to country or region to region depending on the type and magnitude of threats. These strategies include IN SITU, CIRCA SITU and EX SITU conservation. In this paper, the various threats to P. AFRICANA populations across the species’ natural range are investigated together with the conservation strategies which can be put in place to ensure sustainability.

Key words: Threat, climate change, habitat fragmentation, endangered species, conservation strategies, commercial harvesting, forest management, international regulation.
 

African Journal of Ecology and Ecosystems ISSN 2756-3367 Vol. 12 (3), pp. 001-008, March, 2025. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Spatial Assessment and Monitoring of Sustainable Land Management in Zaria using Remote Sensing and GIS

I. I. Abbas* and Y. A. Arigbede

Department of Geography, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria.

Accepted 4 January, 2025

The need for effective planning and disaster prevention is the main reason for real time data generation provided by Remote Sensing and GIS. Zaria is fast becoming more unplanned due to increase in population and the consequent human influence leading to high rate of land use-land cover change. This study therefore looks into changes in land use-land cover between 1985 and 2005 with a view to providing database for future planning. Landsat, spot and digital globe imageries for 1985, 1995 and 2005 respectively were used for the analysis. The result shows that built-up areas increased from 2.3% in 1985 to 36.4% in 2005, water body decreased from 22.5% in 1985 to 6.5% in 2005 while cultivation decreased from 44% in 1995 to 40% in 2005 sending a bad signal of imminent food crisis if not checked. The process has led to elimination of the crop, forest and scrub land mostly towards the eastern and southern outer limits of the city. The growth of built-up areas is mainly towards the east- west route in a linear pattern.

Key words: Land use-Land cover, sustainability, land management, Remote Sensing, Geographic Information System (GIS).

African Journal of Ecology and Ecosystems ISSN 2756-3367 Vol. 12 (2), pp. 001-010, February, 2025. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Cascade Irrigation Effects on Nutrient Migration in Terrace Sawah Ecosystems of West Sumatra, Indonesia

Darmawan Darma1*, Syafrimen Yasin1 and Tsugiyuki Masunaga2

1Faculty of Agriculture, Andalas University, Padang-25163, Indonesia.
2Faculty of Life and Environmental Science, Shimane University, Matsue 690-8504, Japan.

Accepted 2 December, 2024

West Sumatra is one of Indonesian rice bowl. The landscape of this province dominated by mountainous area with beautiful terrace sawah lied from the middle slope to the lowland. The most common rice cultivation management in this area is application of cascade irrigation system with blanked amount of chemical fertilizer application. This study intends to figure out, whether this kind of sawah management sustains are friendly to the environment or not. The results showed that cascade irrigation system created some discrepancies in suspended solid (SS), dissolve organic matter (DOM) and the nutrient movement characteristic along the slope. The SS and DOM load and discharge strongly influenced by land preparation activities, while total and available nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P) affected by chemical fertilizer application. In the upper part, the amount of chemical fertilizer seemed sufficient, indicated by negative amount of nutrient balance, while lower terrace show some indication of excess nutrient input. To avoid some demerit of cascade irrigation system, chemical fertilizer application should be base on site specific characteristic and taking into account of natural source contribution.

Key words: Cascade irrigation, chemical fertilizer, nutrient balance, terrace sawah.
 

African Journal of Ecology and Ecosystems ISSN 2756-3367 Vol. 12 (1), pp. 001-006, January, 2025. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Changes in Water Temperature at Cibuntu Pond: A Preliminary Analysis

Luki Subehi* and M. Fakhrudin

Research Centre for Limnology, Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Cibinong 16911, Indonesia.

Accepted 8 December, 2024

Water temperature is one of the important parameters in the aquatic systems, and it remains an interesting subject of world- wide environmental research. The objective of this study is to identify the parameters of hydrological, meteorological and topological that influence water temperature and its change at pond Cibuntu based on data from April 2008 to April 2009. In addition, the analysis of changes in water temperature during rainfall events could lead to the identification of the mechanisms that generates the initial response as direct inputs of rainwater. In order to gain an insight on water temperature fluctuations, the results of water temperature measurement for one year were statistically analyzed using root mean square (Rms) and harmonic methods. From our analysis, the highest temperatures of air (Ta) and water (Tw) were of 30.6 and 30.9°C, respectively. On the contrary, the lowest of those were 21.1 and 23.0°C, respectively. In addition, the highest values of Rms 7-days for Ta and Tw in September were 1.51 and 1.57, respectively. Based on hourly Tw changes during rainfall events, it seemed that subsurface flow influenced water temperature changes. In addition, the management of pond influenced the flow paths differently through the changes of infiltration rate, surface runoff, interflow/subsurface flow and groundwater percentage.

Key words: Water temperature, air temperature, root mean square, harmonic method, rainfall event.
 

African Journal of Ecology and Ecosystems ISSN 2756-3367 Vol. 12 (1), pp. 001-007, January, 2025. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Utilizing Composted Agricultural Residues to Enhance Potting Soil Quality

M. Saber1*, Z. Mohammed2, S. Badr-el-Din1 and N. Awad1

1National Research Center, Cairo, Egypt.
2Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.

Accepted 25 October, 2024

Four agricultural residues namely, sheath of peanut pods, flax shivers, red sawdust and white sawdust, were composted with different amendments for four months under greenhouse and field conditions. Results emphasized that composting proceeded at different rates and was principally influenced by the type of residues and/or added amendments. Initial bio-fortification of residues with cellulose decomposing microorganisms, exhibited a recognized trend of stimulation and led to a higher rate of organic carbon loss. Percentage losses in organic carbon of the sheath of peanut pods after composting were higher in biofortified treatment. The organic accelerator associated with bio-fortification, led to a loss in the organic carbon amounting to 15.61% of the initial value of flax shivers, after 120 days of composting. Bio-fortification of red sawdust receiving either an organic or a chemical accelerator increased the amounts of bio-oxidized organic carbon to 9.13% in the control and to 16.45 or 12.97% respectively, in amended red sawdust. In white sawdust, the differences in the percentage of oxidized carbon were hardly detectable. The nitrogen (N) concentrations increased in the final compost and the largest amount was found in the sheath of peanut pods, reaching 2.6%. The level of total nitrogen was more or less the same in composts prepared from either flax shivers, red or white sawdust where it was 1.65, 1.63 and 1.5%, respectively. Oxidation of organic matter associated with the increase in nitrogen concentrations, whether initially or during composting, led to a reduction in carbon/nitrogen (C/N) ratios in the final composts. Generally, all biofortified composts had narrower C/N ratios compared to the non-biofortified ones. The lowest organic carbon and total nitrogen contents and consequently C/N ratios were found in sheath of peanut pods compost compared to other residues. Initial neutral pH values of different composted residues were slightly shifted towards acidity before settling around neutrality. Total soluble salts in the final composts varied within the type of agricultural residues used. Nevertheless, values in all composts at the end of the composting did not exceed safe levels.

Key words: Potting soil, bio-fortification, composting, agricultural residues and cellulose decomposing microorganisms.
 

African Journal of Ecology and Ecosystems ISSN 2756-3367 Vol. 12 (1), pp. 001-010, January, 2025. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Examining Soil Salinity and Alkalinity: Implications for Vegetable Crop Germination and Seedling Growth in the Office du Niger Zone

*Minamba Bagayoko

Institute of Rural Economy (IER – Mali), Regional Center of Agronomic Research of Niono, Natural Resource Management Unit, Mali

Accepted 12 December, 2024

Abstract

In 2010 and 2011, pot experiments were conducted at Niono Agronomic Research station to determine soil alkalinity/salinity effects on seed germination and seedling growth of vegetable crops. Three types of soil types with physical sign of salt effects were used for these experiments: salt affected black soil, salt affected white soil and soil presenting no physical sign of salinization. The test crops where 5 varieties of tomato, 5 varieties of cabbage, 5 varieties of onion, 5 varieties of okra and 2 varieties of red pepper. Three types of experiments were conducted: germination tests, seedling survival test and soil amendment test. The experiments were run in a randomized complete block design, using split pot treatment arrangements with soil types as main plot factors and crop varieties as secondary plot factors treatments. Each crop was grown in a separate experiment. The results of this study showed that the varieties of the different crop species generally are very sensitive to salt stress and none of them showed sign of resistance to salinity or alkalinity stress. While all species had high percent germination (95 to 98%) in the non-affected soil, none of them germinated in black or white salt soils indicating the seed quality was not a problem. Tomato, cabbage and onion are particularly sensitive to germination stage and seedling stage. Soil washing could mitigate salt effects on seedling growth but does not seem adequate for the total germination of seeds. Combination of organic amendments and soil washing reduced salt effects but did not insure satisfactory plant growth conditions. It was concluded that in the high alkaline soil, tomato, cabbage, onion and red pepper crops are not suitable.

Keywords: Alkalinisation/salinization, vegetable crop, tomato, onion, okra, cabbage, red pepper, germination percentage, seedling growth, Office du Niger.