Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Forage Genetic Resources In Brazil, Liana Jank, Mateus F. Santos, Cacilda B. Do Valle, Sanzio C. L. Barrios, Rosangela M. Simeão

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

To maintain the largest herd in the world, 214 million heads of beef cattle grazing exclusively on pastures (only 14% finished in feed-lots), Embrapa (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation) in Brazil, has intensely invested on forage breeding programs since the 1980s. Nowadays, there are circa thirteen forage grass and legume species being bred at different Embrapa Units around the country and other six Units focusing on collection and research of regional native forages. Breeding depends on good germplasm sources. Therefore, breeding activities in Brazil will remain highly dependent on exotic and native genetic basis maintained in the Germplasm Banks. Despite the …

Forage Production And Utilisation: Forage Production For Improved On-Farm Wealth And Wellness, John Caradus

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

It is often overlooked that the world’s largest agricultural land use by far is grassland, where these are mostly grazed by livestock, either domesticated or wild animals. Native grasslands are referred to as savanna (in Africa), steppe (in sub- Artic Eurasia), prairie (in North America), or pampas (in South America). Grasslands contribute to the livelihoods of more than 800 million people (FAO 2000). Native grasslands are maintained by restricted rainfall that reduces the opportunity for succession by forest. Grasslands are not only food for livestock, but also provide a habitat for wildlife, prevent soil erosion, support pollinators, and capture carbon …

Sustainable Use Of Grassland Resources For Improved Livelihoods, Liana Jank, Cacilda Borges Do Valle, Rosangela Maria Simeão, Roberto Giolo De Almeida, Mateus Figueiredo Santos, Sanzio Carvalho Barrios

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Grasslands occupy about 80% of global agricultural land and represent a wide range of ecosystems (Bosi et al., 2020). Pastureland represents approximately 889 million ha in Africa, followed by China (~506 million ha), Oceania (~345 million ha), Asia (~307 million ha, excluding China and India), United States (~252 million ha) and Brazil (~149 million ha) (Goldewijk et al. 2017; Bosi et al. 2020; Landau et al., 2020). Rangelands alone are the world largest land surface, and in 28 countries they represent more than 60 percent of total land area (FAO, 2009). The livelihoods of almost one billion people depend on …

Exploring The Information Base Needed For Sustainable Management Of Rangeland Resources For Improved Livelihoods, K. I. Johnsen, M. Niamir-Fuller, A. Bensada, A. Waters-Bayer

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Pastoralism is one of the most sustainable production systems worldwide and plays a major role in safeguarding ecosystem services and biodiversity in rangelands. The unique biological and cultural diversity of rangelands contributes to goods, services and knowledge that benefit humans also beyond the herding communities.

Yet data currently available on grassland, forestry, agriculture and livestock are inadequate for informing policymaking on rangeland-based livestock systems. A review of global environmental assessments, online databases, peer-reviewed literature and international project documents showed that available information seldom disaggregates rangelands from other ecosystems or pastoralists from other rural dwellers. Few peer-reviewed publications address pastoral and …

Allostratigraphy Of The Lower Colorado Group (Cretaceous) In South-West Alberta, Slavena Galic

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Clastic, upper Albian-lower Cenomanian strata were deposited in a low-accommodation backbulge depozone of the Western Canada Foreland Basin in SW Alberta. These strata are lithologically very heterogeneous and encompass a spectrum of depositional environments along an alluvial to offshore transect. These rocks are assigned, in subsurface, to the Lower Colorado Group, and in outcrop to the upper Blairmore Group. Lithological heterogeneity, as a result of rapid lateral facies changes, resulted in diverse nomenclature that obscured genetic relationships between time-equivalent strata. The present study integrates wireline log, core, and outcrop data to establish a high-resolution allostratigraphic framework which allowed recognition of …

Concept Drift Adaptation With Incremental–Decremental Svm, Honorius Gâlmeanu, Răzvan Andonie

Computer Science Faculty Scholarship

Data classification in streams where the underlying distribution changes over time is known to be difficult. This problem—known as concept drift detection—involves two aspects: (i) detecting the concept drift and (ii) adapting the classifier. Online training only considers the most recent samples; they form the so-called shifting window. Dynamic adaptation to concept drift is performed by varying the width of the window. Defining an online Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier able to cope with concept drift by dynamically changing the window size and avoiding retraining from scratch is currently an open problem. We introduce the Adaptive Incremental–Decremental SVM (AIDSVM), a …

The Fierce Green Fire: Vol. 12 Issue 4, Wofford College. Department Of Environmental Studies

The Fierce Green Fire

No abstract provided.

Designed, Highly Expressing, Thermostable Dengue Virus 2 Envelope Protein Dimers Elicit Quaternary Epitope Antibodies, Stephen T. Kudlacek, Stefan Metz, Devina Thiono, Alexander M. Payne, Thanh T.N. Phan, Shaomin Tian, Lawrence J. Forsberg, Jack Mcguire, Ian Selm, Shu Zhang, Ashutosh Tripathy, Joseph S. Harrison, Nathan I. Niceley, Sandrine Soman, Michael K. Mccracken, Gregory D. Gromowski, Richard G. Jarman, Lakshmanane Premkumar, Aravinda M. De Silva, Brian Kuhlman

College of the Pacific Faculty Articles

Dengue virus (DENV) is a worldwide health burden, and a safe vaccine is needed. Neutralizing antibodies bind to quaternary epitopes on DENV envelope (E) protein homodimers. However, recombinantly expressed soluble E proteins are monomers under vaccination conditions and do not present these quaternary epitopes, partly explaining their limited success as vaccine antigens. Using molecular modeling, we found DENV2 E protein mutations that induce dimerization at low concentrations (<100 pM) and enhance production yield by more than 50-fold. Cross-dimer epitope antibodies bind to the stabilized dimers, and a crystal structure resembles the wild-type (WT) E protein bound to a dimer epitope antibody. Mice immunized with the stabilized dimers developed antibodies that bind to E dimers and not monomers and elicited higher levels of DENV2-neutralizing antibodies compared to mice immunized with WT E antigen. Our findings demonstrate the feasibility of using structure-based design to produce subunit vaccines for dengue and other flaviviruses.

Mgrre_Pureoilscouttickets_Lipke_1_21127018190000, Mgrre

Legacy Scout Tickets from Pure Oil Company

No abstract provided.

Land-Use Dynamics Associated With Mangrove Deforestation For Aquaculture And The Subsequent Abandonment Of Ponds, Aslan Aslan, Abdullah F. Rahman, Scott M. Robeson, Muhammad Ilman

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Highlights

• SAR data is useful for tracking dynamic changes in mangrove ecosystem.

• Time series SAR data can be used to estimate lifespan of pond.

• During 22+ years, over half of the mangrove forest in Mahakam Delta has been converted to aquaculture.

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the spatiotemporal dynamics of large area mangrove deforestation, aquaculture pond building, and the subsequent abandonment of ponds in a large delta in Indonesia, namely the Mahakam Delta. So, we developed and applied a novel methodology for exploring the lifespan of aquaculture ponds. Using historical multispectral and radar data, the …

Exploring Optimal Lockdown Policies During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Cameron Bundy

Symposium Of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE)

COVID-19 has impacted public and economic health worldwide. To bolster the economy and maintain human life, economic and epidemiological research is vital. Nations have implemented lockdowns intent on slowing the spread of the virus. This research examines how lockdown parameter adjustments can help control a nations fatalities. The study incorporated an SIRD disease model that is simulated over a 200 day period. The goal of the research is to take the SIRD model and use it to create a minimization function that analyzes dynamics that best produce minimal loss of GDP as well as low loss of life in a …

Thirty Critical Research Needs For Managing An Ecologically And Culturally Unique Remote Marine Environment: The Kimberley Region Of Western Australia, C. Cvitanovic, M. Mackay, R. Kelly, S. K. Wilson, K. Waples, K. L. Nash, E. I. Van Putten, S. Field, T. Botterill-James, B. J. Austin, L. E. Beckley, F. Boschetti, M. Depczynski, R. J. Dobbs, R. D. Evans, M. Feng, R. K. Goater, A. R. Halford, A. Kendrick, G. A. Kendrick, G. D. B. Lincoln, L. J. Ludgerus, R. J. Lowe, Kathryn Mcmahon, J. K. Munro, S. J. Newman, C. Nutt, L. Pearson, M. J. O'Leary, Z. T. Richards, W. D. Robbins, D. I. Rogers, Chandra P. Salgado Kent, V. Schoepf, M. J. Travers, M. Thums, A. D. Tucker, J. N. Underwood, S. Whiting, D. Matthews, Dambimangari Aboriginal Corporation

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The Kimberley marine environment in Western Australia is widely recognised for its outstanding natural features, vast and remote sea and landscapes, and Indigenous cultural significance. To ensure that adequate baseline information is available to understand, monitor and manage this remote and relatively understudied region, scientific exploration was undertaken between 2012 and 2018 as part of the Kimberley Marine Research Program (KMRP). Whilst this program generated significant amounts of new knowledge about the region, important research gaps remain, that if answered, should improve the capacity of managers to conserve the region's values more effectively. Here, we apply established participatory horizon scanning …

Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit (Bpsou) Approved 2021-2-22 Final Reclaimed Areas Maintenance And Monitoring Quality Assurance Project Plan (Qapp), Mike Mcanulty, Eric Hassler

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Complete Mitochondrial Genomes Of Two Species Of Stichopathes Brook, 1889 (Hexacorallia: Antipatharia: Antipathidae) From Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Cynthia M. Asorey, Javier Sellanes, Daniel Wagner, Erin E. Easton

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

We report the complete mitochondrial genomes of two antipatharian species, Stichopathes sp. SCBUCN-8849 and Stichopathes sp. SCBUCN-8850, collected between 120 and 180 m depth off Rapa Nui (∼ −27.1°, −109.4°). The size of the two mitogenomes are 20,389 bp (29.0% A, 15.2% C, 19.9% G, and 35.9% T) and 20,463 bp (29.0% A, 15.3% C, 19.9% G, and 35.8% T), respectively. Both mitogenomes have the classic Hexacorallia gene content of 13 protein-coding, two rRNA, and two tRNA genes plus a COX1 intron with embedded HEG as found in the Antipathidae and other antipatharian families.

All-Sky Search For Continuous Gravitational Waves From Isolated Neutron Stars In The Early O3 Ligo Data, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, S. Abraham, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, A. Adams, C. Adams, R. X. Adhikari, V. B. Adya, C. Affeldt, D. Agarwal, M. Agathos, K. Agatsuma, N. Aggarwal, O. D. Aguiar, L. Aiello, A. Ain, P. Ajith, T. Akutsu, Tiffany Z. Summerscales

Faculty Publications

We report on an all-sky search for continuous gravitational waves in the frequency band 20-2000 Hz and with a frequency time derivative in the range of [-1.0,+0.1]×10-8 Hz/s. Such a signal could be produced by a nearby, spinning and slightly nonaxisymmetric isolated neutron star in our Galaxy. This search uses the LIGO data from the first six months of Advanced LIGO's and Advanced Virgo's third observational run, O3. No periodic gravitational wave signals are observed, and 95% confidence-level (C.L.) frequentist upper limits are placed on their strengths. The lowest upper limits on worst-case (linearly polarized) strain amplitude h0 are ∼1.7×10-25 …

Modeling Initial Breakdown Pulses Of Intracloud Lightning Flashes, Nilmini Karunarathne, Thomas C. Marshall, Sumedhe Karunarathne, Maribeth Stolzenburg

Faculty and Student Publications

In this study 29 initial breakdown pulses (IBPs) from four intracloud (IC) lightning flashes are modeled using data from five or more electric field change (E-change) sites. For each flash the first 5–9 located IBPs are investigated. For each IBP the modeling first extracts the IBP current waveform from the E-change data by matrix inversion and then determines the best channel length and current velocity to match the IBP data. Derived IBP quantities of total charge, charge moment, peak current, peak radiated power, and total energy are calculated. Resulting IBP vertical lengths varied from 27 m to 1300 m; most …

Environmental Factors Effect On Rangeland Plant Diversity In Al Sabaloga Area, Sudan, Salma Abdelghaffar Hassan Alamin, Hala Ahamed Hassan

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

The study was conducted in AL Elsabaloga area in Sudan in 2017. This study aimed to assess environmental and biotic factor effects on rangeland plant diversity in the study area. A total sample size of 130 was chosen randomly to collect primary data. The data were coded, summarized, tabulated and processed. Analysis was conducted using (SPSS) computer program. The results were presented in the form of a frequency distribution. There were many problem effects on Rangeland plant diversity. Among these were floods (P < 0.01), expansion of agriculture (P < 0.01), over grazing (P < 0.01), drought, sand marching and desertification (P < 0.01), insect (P < 0.01). In addition, disappear of some plant and appear invader plant. The study was concluded expansion of agriculture, seasonal fire, overgrazing, drought, sand marching and desertification are important factors that effect on plant diversity in the study area. The study recommended protection of rangeland needs to be by improvement of the extension services, management of rangeland through opening of fire lines. Development and improvement, plant diversity and demarcation of routes relevant ministries is essential.

Collective Approach Of Rural Development: Case Study Of “Maronna Foundation” In The Pampa Bioma, Rio Grande Do Sul, Brazil, Adriana Ferreira Da Costa Vargas, Vicente Celestino Pires Silveira

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

The Maronna Foundation was created in the 1980s by two brothers who were heirless farmers. After a visit to Massey University, New Zealand, they decided to use their fortune to support rural farming in the Brazilian Pampa through an agropastoral institute. Over the last four decades, the foundation has developed diverse research, education, and extension projects in partnership with local, regional, national, and international institutions, especially universities, research centers, non-governmental organizations and local governances. Recent surveys conducted in the area of the Maronna Foundation demonstrate the interest of local breeders in technologies applied to farming systems, mainly for rangeland and …

Woody Plant Species Composition And Diversity In Rusinga Island, Homa Bay County, Kenya, M. N. Nyaga, S. M. Mureithi, V. O. Wasonga, O. K. Koech

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Information on the state of woody vegetation of Rusinga Island is urgently needed in order to develop appropriate and effective conservation guidelines. Rusinga Island is an ancient historic area with numerous archeological sites and a bountiful of birdlife. However, the Island is characterized by highly degraded ecosystems from human disturbances such as cutting down of trees for fuel, construction poles, and overgrazing resulting in a remarkable degradation of flora, alteration of the ecosystems and loss of biodiversity. This study sought to determine the composition and diversity of woody plant species in Rusinga Island to understand the current status in order …

Visual Assessment Of Soil Structure As An Early Indicator Of Soil Quality In Response To Intensive Rotational Grazing, N. Teutscherova, E. Vazquez, D. Baquero, N. E. Velasquez-Ruiz, M. Pulleman, Jacobo Arango

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Grasslands can play a crucial role in mitigation of global warming by serving as carbon sink. Nevertheless, to achieve the grasslands’ potential, sustainable management is of the utmost importance as it determines system’s productivity and ecosystem services. Due to the increasing demand for animal products in developing countries, grazed areas increase exponentially in the tropics, mainly due to unsustainable management leading to low productivity and soil degradation. We evaluated the impact of intensive rotational grazing management (IRG) on early indicators of soil quality following land-use change based on on-farm observations of visual soil characteristics using two different widely used assessment …

Short-Term Dry Season Forage Monitoring In Rangelands And Savannas Of West Africa, J. Y. Anchang, C. W. Ross, W. Ji, Q. Yu, B. Lind, L. Prihodko, N. P. Hanan

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Dry season plant biomass is critical for livestock production and hence livelihoods in rangeland communities. We have developed a cloud-based application that employs remote sensing data to provide weekly spatially explicit information on plant vegetation cover in West Africa during the dry season (typically October-June). In this paper, we discuss the data analysis steps and results that drive the application. Linear spectral mixture analysis is used to derive endmember samples of basic landcover primitives (active/green vegetation, non-active vegetation, and bare soil) from very high-resolution imagery that spans the spatiotemporal spectrum from wet/peak-green to dry/dormant conditions in Senegal. These samples are …

Range Condition Classification Based On Quantitative Characteristics Of Vegetation, Nafiseh Fakhar, Mansour Mesdaghi, Kamal Naseri

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Change in range condition classes over time are usually the basis for monitoring management effectiveness. Several approaches have been proposed to monitor the range condition classes in relation to a bench mark usually called climax stage. There are some types of range condition classification often included in a range inventory. In this paper, six factors of canopy cover, litter frequency, plant vigour, soil protection percentage, plant composition, and present production as a percentage of indicative state were described for determination range conditions. We have determined range condition classes by using R software. This method was developed by FAO projects in …

Prescribed Fire Plus Grazing Horses: A Sustainable Model To Decrease Fire Hazard In A Mountain Landscape, F. Torres-Manso, R. Pinto, A. Marta-Costa, P. Fernandes, M. Fernandes

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

The mountain landscapes of northern Portugal have been modified through rural depopulation and the absence of rangeland management. As such, increased above-ground biomass and higher fire hazard resulted, as well as decreased ecosystem biodiversity. The objectives of the OpentoPreserve Interreg SUDOE project are to evaluate the effects of the combined use of prescribed fire with grazing horses, and also to develop strategies of socio-economic valorization of this model. Concerning the evaluation of prescribed fire and grazing effects, the experimental design consisted of three plots in the Natura 2000 Alvão/Marão Site, respectively Control, Fire x Grazing, and Fire. The Fire plots …

Positive Changes In Regional Vegetation Cover In Patagonia Shown By Maras Monitoring System, Gabriel E. Oliva, J. Gaitan

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

MARAS (Environmental monitoring of arid and semiarid lands) is a vegetation and soil monitoring system in Patagonia, a 700.000 km2 area in southern South America. Installed between 2008-2015 within INTA-Argentina and INIA-Chile national agricultural research institutes, it includes photographs, 500-point intercepts, 50-m canfield lines to detect patches, 10 land function observations and 0-10 cm soil samples in 458 ground sites. Data is centralized and freely accessible https://maras.inta.gob.ar. We analysed changes based in the first 255 reassessments made at 5-year intervals. At a regional scale significant changes (P < 0.05 paired T test) were detected for: perennial vegetation cover, that was originally 42% and increased +3.1%. Plant species richness of 13.7 species/monitor increased +0.7, bare soil of 35% decreased -7.9%. Length of bare soil interpatches was 157 cm and decreased -42 cm. Land function indexes of Stability 46.2%, Infiltration 45.1% and Recycling 31.0% showed small non-significant changes (-1.3, +0.7 and +1.42 respectively). Significant changes in soils under vegetated patches were: conductivity 0.59 dS/m increased +0.49, and pH 7.3 +0.33. Organic matter was 2.0% and increased 0.35%, and sand was 73% and increased 3%. Finer soil particles decreased non-significantly. Bare soil interpatches had 1.4% organic matter and also increased 0.33%, and clay, that initially was 9.3% reduced -2.3%. The long-term ground sites provide a means to monitor slow changes in these rangelands in relation to global climatic change and regional grazing patterns. Patagonia has currently the lowest domestic stocking rates of the last century and vegetation seems to be slowly growing in perennial cover, with significant reductions in exposed bare soil, increase in biodiversity and soil organic carbon.

Modelling Catchment-Scale Evapotranspiration And Net Primary Production In Sub-Humid African Grasslands: Towards Understanding Carbon And Water Trade-Offs In Communal Rangelands, A. R. Palmer, Z. Munch, L. Vermeulen

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Being able to confidently predict net primary production within intensively used rangeland systems has become the goal of many rangeland scientists. The communally-managed rangelands of Africa, with their very high livestock numbers, represent such a challenge, as above-ground biomass is most often depleted before it has had chance to accumulate. In order to provide more accurate estimates of NPP for these rangelands, we explored the use of direct measurements of canopy cover, standing biomass and leaf area index, against standard vegetation indices from the Sentinel 2 sensors. Following intensive field surveys, we developed regression models of the relationships between Sentinel …

Lowveld Savanna Bush Cutting Alters Tree-Grass Interactions, E. R. Wedel, J. B. Nippert, A. M. Swemmer

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Savannas are characterized by the coexistence of trees and grasses, and their interactions are modified by water availability and herbivore activity. Many savannas are experiencing bush encroachment, resulting in reduced herbaceous productivity and shifts in savanna structure. This study aims to understand the effects of tree density and tree cutting on herbaceous productivity, water use, and herbivore abundance in a mopane-dominated lowveld savanna. We present data from a 4-year mopane-cutting experiment in the Mthimkhulu Game Reserve bordering Kruger National Park (South Africa). We established three 60x60 m plots for experimental manipulation where mopane stems and re-sprouting shoots were cut 2-3 …

Multifunctionality Of Sown Grassland Is Enhanced By Combining Four Complementary Species, M. Suter, O. Huguenin-Elie, Andreas Lüscher

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

We investigated species diversity effects and multifunctionality in an intensively managed grassland. A diversity experiment was set up with monocultures and mixtures comprising Lolium perenne, Dactylis glomerata, Trifolium pratense, and Trifolium repens, and was maintained for three years at 150 kg∙N∙ha^-1∙ year^-1. Ten functions were measured that represented i) forage production (aboveground biomass yield (μ), standard deviation of yield (σ), temporal stability (μ/σ), weed biomass), ii) N cycling (symbiotic-N₂-fixation, N efficiency, NO₃ in soil solution), and forage quality (crude protein content (CP), organic matter digestibility …

Status And Distribution Of Range Plants Genetic Resources In Al Sabaloga Biosphere Conservation Area, Sudan, Salma Abdelghaffar Hassan Alamin, Hala Ahamed Hassan

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

The study was conducted in the Al Sabaloga area in 2017. The objective of this study was to investigate the status and distribution of range plants genetic resources in the study area. Sample size of 131 was chosen randomly to collect primary data. The data were coded, summarized, tabulated and processed. Analysis was conducted using (SPSS) computer program. The results were presented in the form of a frequency distribution. The result of this study represented in an ecological zone in the study area about (67%) Nile bank and island, Goz (35%), Valley (22%), Plains (17%) and Mountains (17%). For example, …

Rejuvenation Of Rangelands – Role Of Diversity And Improvement Strategies Of Range Grasses, A. K. Roy, D. R. Malaviya, P. Kaushal

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

In India, a major part of the rural economy is dependent on the grazing-based livestock husbandry which is unique integration of agriculture and livestock coupled with rich traditional knowledge. Ecosystems of common property resources had been a mainstay in rural economy and livelihood. The traditional grazing forage resources in arid and semi-arid regions have deteriorated a lot due to various factors including heavy grazing pressure, climate change and dominance of invasive species, thus, needs rejuvenation. Additionally, these are causing serious economic and ecological problems such as poor productivity, soil and water erosion and reduced carbon sequestration.

The genetic improvement of …

Soil Carbon Stocks Are Stable Under New Zealand Hill Country Pastures With Contrasting Phosphorus And Sheep Stocking Regimes, Ronaldo Vibart, Alec D. Mackay, C. Mckenzie, Brian Devantier, Des A. Costall, E. Noakes, F. Bilotto

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

A temporal and spatial assessment is required to quantify the effects of nutrient inputs and varying grazing management regimes on soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks under grazed pastures in complex landscapes. We examined SOC stocks under permanent pastures in three farmlets under a range of different annual phosphorus (P) fertiliser and associated sheep stocking regimes. The farmlets examined had either no annual P applied (NF), 125 kg single superphosphate (SSP) ha^-1 (LF), or 375 kg SSP ha^-1 (HF) on an annual basis since 1980. Soils were sampled to three depths (0-75, 75-150, 150-300 mm) in 2003 and 2020, …