Stockpiling disrupts the biological integrity of topsoil for ecological restoration

Purpose Biotic and abiotic properties of soils can hinder or facilitate ecological restoration, and management practices that impact edaphic factors can strongly influence plant growth and restoration outcomes. Salvaged topsoil is an invaluable resource for mine-site restoration, and a common practice is topsoil transfer from mined areas to restoration sites. However, direct transfer is often not feasible, necessitating storage in stockpiles. We evaluated the effects of topsoil stockpiling on plant performance across diverse ecosystems impacted by mining throughout Western Australia. Methods We conducted a bioassay experiment using a widespread native Acacia species to assess how topsoil storage might impact plant growth, physiology, and nodulation by N-fixing bacteria using soils from native reference vegetation and stockpiled soils from six mine sites across Western Australia. Results Plant responses varied across mine sites, but overall plants performed better in soils collected from native vegetation, exhibiting greater biomass, more root nodules, and higher water-use efficiency compared to those grown in stockpiled soils. Soil physiochemistry showed few and minor differences between native soils and stockpiles. Conclusion Results strongly suggest observed differences in plant performance were biotic in nature. This study highlights the negative effects of topsoil storage on the biological integrity of soil across diverse ecosystems, with important implications for mine-site restoration; our results show that topsoil management can strongly influence plant performance, and stockpiled soils are likely inferior to recently disturbed topsoil for restoration purposes. We also use this study to illustrate the utility of bioassays for assessing soil quality for ecological restoration.

THE QUALITY OF BEE QUEENS OBTAINED BY DIFFERENT METHODS

Honeybees can only live and work in a bee colony. There is normally only one queen bee in a standard bee colony. It is the family's only fully matured female and the mother of young queen, drone, and worker bees. When a bee colony loses its queen bee and is unable to reproduce a new one, it eventually dies. Timely change of queen bees every 2 years, as well as increasing and maintaining the strength of bee colonies are the main zootechnical measures to maintain optimal life of bees and get the maximum amount of products from them. The presence of the queen bee in the bee family of honey bees fully influences their flight activity in collecting bee pollen. In its absence, the harvesting of pollen and its processing, as well as the extraction of wax and the construction of honeycombs, the cultivation of brood, and the collection of nectar are significantly slowed down and then completely stopped. With the advent of the uterus, all the functions of the family as a whole biological system are restored. Therefore, the quality of queens is a determining factor in the viability and productivity of the bee colony. The aim of the study was to compare the quality of reproductive function of queen bees of Apis mellifera sossimai and Apis mellifera carpatica breeds in different ways of obtaining them, and the impact on productivity of the bee colony. To carry out experimental work in the apiary, three control groups and two experimental groups were formed, with nine bee colonies in each group. In the first group, the queen bees were artificially breeded from the nursery, in the second group - fistulous queens bees, and in the third - the swarm queen bees. The apiary is situated on a 50-50 meter plot of land. Hives are used to keep bee colonies. Bees are kept in the apiary of the Ukrainian field breed. A pollinating honey area is available at the apiary. A winter house, a mobile vehicle, and a suitable chamber for honey pumping are all available at the apiary. Mustard is sown around the apiary every year. According to the study, big full-fledged queen bees are born in a healthy, physiologically complete bee colony. When the strength of a bee colony was increased, the queen bees were born 30 mg lighter. The number of fallopian tubes of queen bees raised with a biological integrity breach is 185,1 ± 7,3, while the number of fallopian tubes of queen bees raised with biological integrity is 207,6 ± 7,4. If the bees bring nectar and pollen during the breeding process, the queen bees are born huge, but without the forage а little and with poor executive abilities. It makes no difference how strong the foraging is; even 200 – 300 g of nectar and pollen per day has a positive impact on the quality of queen bees produced. Fistula uteruses had higher egg production compared to swarms in the same conditions of colony development.

Development of a Fish-Based Multimetric Index for the Assessment of Lagoons’ Ecological Quality in Northern Greece

Maintaining and improving the aquatic ecosystems in the community is the aim of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) 2000/60/EC. The WFD requires the water quality to be classified into five categories. Lagoons are dynamic ecosystems. The fish communities inhabiting them are highly affected by the environmental conditions prevailing both in the freshwater systems and in the marine environment. The current paper presented the first effort to develop a fish-based index (Lagoon Fish-based Index—LFI) for the assessment of the Mediterranean shallow lagoons, as almost all indices produced to date refer to freshwater or estuarine systems. For the development and calibration of the index, data were collected from nine lagoons situated in three estuarine systems in the East Macedonia and Thrace regions. The development of the LFI was based on the principles of the Indices of Biological Integrity (IBIs) that were primary used for the assessment of aquatic ecosystems in the USA. A total number of 25 metrics were selected as potential metrics for the LFI. These metrics describe attributes such as the abundance and composition of the fish fauna, the feeding strategies of the species, and the presence of sentinel species. Finally, eight metrics were included in the LFI.

Cross-Cultural Ethnobotanical Assembly as a New Tool for Understanding Medicinal and Culinary Values–The Genus Lycium as A Case Study

Ethnobotanical knowledge is indispensable for the conservation of global biological integrity, and could provide irreplaceable clues for bioprospecting aiming at new food crops and medicines. This biocultural diversity requires a comprehensive documentation of such intellectual knowledge at local levels. However, without systematically capturing the data, those regional records are fragmented and can hardly be used. In this study, we develop a framework to assemble the cross-cultural ethnobotanical knowledge at a genus level, including capturing the species’ diversity and their cultural importance, integrating their traditional uses, and revealing the intercultural relationship of ethnobotanical data quantitatively. Using such a cross-cultural ethnobotanical assembly, the medicinal and culinary values of the genus Lycium are evaluated. Simultaneously, the analysis highlights the problems and options for a systematic cross-cultural ethnobotanical knowledge assembly. The framework used here could generate baseline data relevant for conservation and sustainable use of plant diversity as well as for bioprospecting within targeting taxa.

Feeding ecology of the catfish Ictalurus punctatus (Siluriformes: Ictaluridae) in a reservoir in Northeast Mexico

Objective: Determine the main food components of the catfish, their seasonal variability and according to the sex of the organism. Methodology: In total, 143 stomachs of catfish were examined. In the analysis of the stomach content, the detected organisms were determined until the taxonomic order rank. It was analyzed the seasonal and sex feeding variability. Results: The total annual trophic spectrum for catfish consisted of 13 items, of which only the order Ephemeroptera reached the category as a frequent food. In the winter season the catfish consumed significantly more food compared to the other seasons and there was no difference in the amount consumed by females and males (p>0.05). Implications: This information is relevant to highlight the importance of the biological integrity of the terrestrial site surrounds the reservoir, which is a source of food for the catfish. Conclusions: Catfish channel in the Venustiano Carranza Dam is a generalist species (13 alimentary items). There was a difference in the amount of food consumed between the seasons of the year; however there was no difference between the sexes.

Evaluating the Relationships between Riparian Land Cover Characteristics and Biological Integrity of Streams Using Random Forest Algorithms

The relationships between land cover characteristics in riparian areas and the biological integrity of rivers and streams are critical in riparian area management decision-making. This study aims to evaluate such relationships using the Trophic Diatom Index (TDI), Benthic Macroinvertebrate Index (BMI), Fish Assessment Index (FAI), and random forest regression, which can capture nonlinear and complex relationships with limited training datasets. Our results indicate that the proportions of land cover types in riparian areas, including urban, agricultural, and forested areas, have greater impacts on the biological communities in streams than those offered by land cover spatial patterns. The proportion of forests in riparian areas has the greatest influence on the biological integrity of streams. Partial dependence plots indicate that the biological integrity of streams gradually improves until the proportion of riparian forest areas reach about 60%; it rapidly decreases until riparian urban areas reach 25%, and declines significantly when the riparian agricultural area ranges from 20% to 40%. Overall, this study highlights the importance of riparian forests in the planning, restoration, and management of streams, and suggests that partial dependence plots may serve to provide insightful quantitative criteria for defining specific objectives that managers and decision-makers can use to improve stream conditions.

Using of Index Biological Integrity of Phytoplankton (P-IBI) in the Assessment of Water Quality in Don River Section

The multimetric Phytoplankton Index of Biological Integrity (P-IBI) was applied throughout Rostov on Don city (Russia) on 8 Locations in Don River from April – October 2019. The P-IBI is composed from seven metrics: Species Richness Index (SRI), Density of Phytoplankton and total biomass of phytoplankton and Relative Abundance (RA) for blue-green Algae, Green Algae, Bacillariophyceae and Euglenaphyceae Algae. The average P-IBI values fell within the range of (45.09-52.4). Therefore, water throughout the entire study area was characterized by the equally "poor" quality. Negative points of anthropogenic impact detected at the stations are: Above the city of Rostov-on-Don (1 km, higher duct Aksai) was 38.57 in June, the lower inflow of the Temernik river which was 38.57- 41.42 in summer and below the spillway was 38.57 -34.28 in August. At these stations, samples with P-IBI values more than 56, characterizing water quality as "Fair", were not found in any of the observations. The negative effect on the water at the stations may be due to the influence of the closely located Aksai city and the impact of the Temernik River. In Russia P-IBI have not been used yet, so this study can be considered as the first study that’s conducted to assess the environmental status of the Don River by using the phytoplankton index of Biological Integrity and has developed scoring criteria of the Don River (P-IBI) and other watercourses of the south of Russia. The continuous monitoring relaying on the selection of the most suitable metrics score is recommended.