APPLICATION OF VEGETATION INDICES AS A STEP TOWARDS THE RELEVANCE OF THE STATE OF BEECH FOREST HABITATS: A CASE STUDY FROM BOATIN RESERVE, CENTRAL BULGARIA

Aims There are different components of carbon (C) pools in a natural forest ecosystem: biomass, soil, litter and woody debris. We asked how these pools changed with elevation in one of China’s ecologically important forest ecosystem, i.e. beech (Fagus L., Fagaceae) forests, and what were the underlying driving factors of such variation. Methods The four C pools in nine beech forests were investigated along an elevational gradient (1095–1930 m) on Mt. Fanjingshan in Guizhou Province, Southwest China. Variance partitioning was used to explore the relative effects of stand age, climate and other factors on C storage. In addition, we compared the four C pools to other beech forests in Guizhou Province and worldwide. Important Findings The total C pools of beech forest ecosystems ranged from 190.5 to 504.3 Mg C ha–1, mainly attributed to biomass C (accounting for 33.7–73.9%) and soil C (accounting for 23.9–65.5%). No more than 4% of ecosystem C pools were stored in woody debris (0.05–3.1%) and litter (0.2–0.7%). Ecosystem C storage increased significantly with elevation, where both the biomass and woody debris C pools increased with elevation, while those of litter and soil exhibited no such trend. For the Guizhou beech forests, climate and stand age were found to be key drivers of the elevational patterns of ecosystem and biomass C storage, while for beech forests globally, stand age was the most important predictor. Compared to beech forests worldwide, beech forests in Guizhou Province displayed a relatively higher biomass C accumulation rate, which may be explained by a much higher precipitation in this area. The present study provides basic data for understanding the C budgets of Chinese beech forests and their possible roles in regional C cycling and emphasizes the general importance of stand age and climate on C accumulation.

Long-range prediction of monsoon activity: A synoptic – Diagnostic study

Combining NDVI, PRI and the quantum yield of solar-induced fluorescence improves estimations of carbon fluxes in deciduous and evergreen forests

In order to estimate fecundity of threatened small indigenous fish species, tit punti (Pethia ticto), an investigation was done at the Field Laboratory Complex, Faculty of Fisheries, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh during June to August, 2017. The mean total lengths were 5.39 ±0.58, 5.20 ± 0.43, 5.79 ± 0.97 cm and mean ovary weights were 0.45 ± 0.20, 0.38 ± 0.15, 0.53 ± 0.26 g for the month of June, July and August, respectively. The fecundity of P. ticto for the month of June was estimated to be 1120-13892 with a mean of 5319.62 ± 3169.16, for the month of July it was 1071-12325 with a mean of 5407.68 ± 3186.82 and for the month of August it was 2268-14328 with a mean of 5919.92 ± 3436.29. The gonadosomatic index (GSI) were 16.62 ± 3.35, 19.01± 4.55 and 14.75± 2.53 for the month of June, July and August, respectively. The highest GSI was observed in July (25.77) and the lowest was 10.53 in June. Information of fecundity and GSI of P. ticto will be helpful for artificial propagation, conservation, and management of this fish species.

Forest ecosystems significantly contribute to the global organic carbon (OC) pool, exhibiting high spatial heterogeneity in this respect. Some of the components of the OC pool in a forest (woody aboveground biomass (wAGB), coarse root biomass (CRB)) can be relatively easily estimated using readily available data from land observation and forest inventories, while some of the components of the OC pool are very difficult to determine (fine root biomass (FRB) and soil organic matter (SOM) stock). The main objectives of our study were to: (1) estimate the SOM stock; (2) estimate FRB; and (3) assess the relationship between both biotic (wAGB, forest age, foliage, stand density) and abiotic factors (climatic conditions, relief, soil properties) and SOM stocks and FRB in temperate forests in the Western Carpathians consisting of European beech, Norway spruce, and silver fir (32 forest inventory plots in total). We uncovered the highest wAGB in beech forests and highest SOM stocks under beech forest. FRB was the highest under fir forest. We noted a considerable impact of stand density on SOM stocks, particularly in beech and spruce forests. FRB content was mostly impacted by stand density only in beech forests without any discernible effects on other forest characteristics. We discovered significant impacts of relief-dependent factors and SOM stocks at all the studied sites. Our biomass and carbon models informed by more detailed environmental data led to reduce the uncertainty in over- and underestimation in Cambisols under beech, spruce, and fir forests for mountain temperate forest carbon pools.

The forest floor is hotspot of several functions integral to the stability of forest ecosystems. However, seasonal variations in litter decomposition rate contribute to biochemical and structural heterogeneity in the forest floor carbon (C) and nutrient cycling. We investigated the influence of seasonal variations in litter layers' micro-climate (temperature and moisture content) and chemical characteristics such as pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total organic C (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), and C/N ratio on microbial respiration, biomass, and C use efficiency under mature (> 80years stage age) pine, beech, and cedar forests in eastern Mediterranean Karstic ecosystems. In contrast to significantly higher microbial respiration in fall, winter, and spring under pine, beech, and cedar forests, the significantly lowest microbial biomass C (MBC) and microbial biomass N (MBN) were observed in winter under each forest. Microbial C use efficiency, measured as the metabolic quotient (qCO2 = CO2/MBC), varied strongly between forest stands and seasons but was generally higher in winter. The significant positive correlations between litter layer and microbial biomass C/N ratios, under beech and cedar forests, suggested strong CN stoichiometric coupling and microbial adaptation to substrate resource stoichiometry. qCO2 correlated significantly negatively with litter layers' temperature, positively with moisture content and EC. However, qCO2 had significant negative relationships with pH in pine and beech forests but significant positive under cedar forest. qCO2 showed significant positive relationships with C/N ratios under all forests but much stronger in beech and cedar forests suggesting higher C respired per unit MBC with an increase in C/N ratio. Despite variations between forest species, the highest MBC/TOC and MBN/TN ratios in fall indicated greater C and N incorporation into microbial biomass. Changes in MBC/MBN ratios under pine (9.62-10.6), beech (8.63-15.6), and cedar (7.32-16.2) forests indicated the shift in microbial communities as fungi have a higher C/N ratio than bacteria. Stepwise regression analysisfurther revealed that microbial respiration and biomass were controlled differentlyby litter layer characteristics in each forest. This study suggested that qCO2 independently or with other microbial indices can show litter layers' controls on organic matter turnover in Karst ecosystems and, taking into account the strong seasonal variations, can enhance the predictive potential of decomposition models.

Background: The periodic variation in the occurrence of disease within a calendar period is relatively common among many diseases, especially infectious diseases like tuberculosis (TB). Objective: The study is to radiologically evaluate the seasonality of pulmonary tuberculosis in our environment. Materials and Method: The study was a descriptive cross-sectional study over a period of 6 years (2017-2022) with one thousand, three hundred and fifty (1350) chest radiographs diagnosed of pulmonary tuberculosis. The chest radiographs were reviewed by three Radiologists with certification from the Faculty of Radiology of the West African College of Surgeons or the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria. The data was analyzed descriptively using the statistical package for social science, SPSS version 23.0. Result: The monthly time series distribution of the radiologic diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis showed the lowest occurrences in the year 2020. The monthly average Seasonal Index of the radiologic occurrence of pulmonary TB shows that the months of June (1.29), July (1.95), and August (2.09) demonstrated the highest average seasonal index. The monthly averages from January to December over the 6 years of the study showed the highest occurrences in the month of August, and the lowest occurrences in the month of October. Conclusion: Although there were inconsistencies in the monthly pattern over the six year period, the highest incidence was in the month of August, followed by the month of July. Thus the study concludes that there exist seasonal variations in the radiologic diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis.

The effect of the extract on the transport stress of broiler chickens transported during different seasons of the year was experimentally studied. During the months of February, March, July, August, and different regions of Iraq, with a density of 10 or 12 birds per cage, as the Ross 308 birds were divided into 10 treatments per move and three replicates for each treatment. The T1 treatment was control without spraying, and the number of birds was 10 in the cage. T2 control without spraying and the number of birds 12 in the cage. T3 Spraying the birds with an extract of local Anemone coronaria flowers at a concentration of 2% and the number of birds is 10 in the cage. T4 Spraying the birds with an extract of local Anemone coronaria flowers at a concentration of 4% and the number of birds 10 in the cage. T5 Spraying the birds with an extract of local Anemone coronaria flowers at a concentration of 6% and the number of birds 10 in the cage. T6 Spraying the birds with an extract of local Anemone coronaria flowers at a concentration of 2%. The number of birds is 12 in the cage. T7 Spraying the birds with an extract of local Anemone coronaria flowers at a concentration of 4%. The number of birds is 12 in the cage. T8 Spraying the birds with an extract of local Anemone coronaria flowers at a concentration of 6% and the number of birds is 12 in the cage. T9 Spraying birds with isoflurane at a concentration of 6%, the number of birds is 10 per cage. T10 Spraying birds with isoflurane at a concentration of 6%. The number of birds is 12 per cage ,The birds were sprayed for 5 minutes before the transfer process, according to the above treatments, and the duration of one transfer was 240 minutes ± 10 minutes, from the results of the field experiment, it can be noted that there was a significant decrease (p < 0.05) in the rate of weight loss during the months of February and March, as the spraying treatments T5, T9, T10 recorded (81, 76, 78) grams, respectively, compared with the treatments T1, T2 (108, 109) grams, respectively, and this was reflected in the percentage of weight loss, as it recorded T5,T9, and T10 (3.01, 2.90, 3.19)% compared to the treatments T1, T2 (4.04, 4.07)%. While T5,T9 and T10 recorded (319.95,300.20, 308.10) Iraqi dinars are the least financial losses for the month of March, but during the summer season, it is noted that the lost weight decreased during the months of July and August in transactions T5,T9and T10 (186,180, 187,) gm, respectively, compared with T1, T2 (216, 220) gm Respectively, it is also noted that the percentage of loss in these transactions decreased, as it recorded T5,T9, T10, (7.71,7.11, 7.36,)%, respectively. It is noted that financial losses decreased in these transactions during the month of August, as it recorded T5, T9 and T10 (734.70, 711.00, 738.65) Iraqi dinars, respectively, compared with T1, T2 (853.200, 869.00) Iraqi dinars, respectively

Since 2018, severe droughts have affected a significant part of central Europe, causing premature leaf senescence in European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.). The correlation between the vitality of Fagus sylvatica L. and various geo-ecological and biological determinants (such as elevation, slope, aspect, tree age, and soil properties) concerning hydrological drought stress is still not well understood, especially when integrating multiple geographical datasets. In addition, the determination of crown condition by remote sensing and geo-ecological parameters is still under development; it would allow the assessment of an area-wide forest health status. Our analysis incorporated annual field data from the German National Forest Condition Survey (Waldzustandserhebung, WZE) as a response variable and employed geo-ecological parameters derived from a digital elevation model, soil properties and vegetation indices from a Sentinel-2 time series to explain and predict the crown defoliation of European beech throughout the drought-impacted period spanning 2016–2022 across the federal states Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, and Hesse of Germany. In a second step, the results of the modeling were used for mapping of crown defoliation in Hesse, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein. By employing Gradient Boosting Machines and Random Forest for regression analysis, the study uncovered the relationships between crown defoliation and the used predictors. Training was conducted on 80 % of the dataset, with the remaining 20 % serving as a test set for model validation. Regression findings based on static explanatory variable sets were improved by dynamic explanatory variables such as estimates of soil moisture, vegetation index metrics, and diameter at breast height. Furthermore, we identified key predictors for mapping crown defoliation of Fagus sylvatica L. and recommended using vegetation indices as additional predictors for future studies. The modeling results provided comparably accurate estimates compared to WZE estimates (R2 of 0.794 and RMSE of 7.646 %) during testing. Topographic and static soil predictors were significant, with soil moisture being a particularly influential variable for model optimization. Based on the predicted crown defoliation, beech trees with low to moderate crown defoliation predominated in beech distribution areas across the examined federal states, while a small number of beech trees with high defoliation were identified mostly in South Lower Saxony and Hesse. The annual variations in the proportions of beech trees showing increasing and decreasing crown defoliation indicate that the condition of the crown temporarily deteriorated when soil moisture decreased, but beech trees recovered after prolonged periods of drought. Additionally, beech trees in the study region exposed to declining soil moisture may suffer from medium-term declines in vitality. The predicted crown defoliation data can be utilized for future climate-adaptive management practices in European beech forests.

Over the past decade, extreme temperature and drought have resulted in widespread early leaf discoloration in European Beech (Fagus sylvatica) forests across central Europe. Discoloration during the particularly hot and dry summer of 2018 was ultimately associated with increased rates of crown dieback and tree mortality. Given the trend towards hotter and drier growing seasons under a changing climate, there is an increasing demand for site-specific recommendations on drought-resilient forest management practices in Switzerland. Making these recommendations requires a robust understanding of empirical forest disturbance and estimates of future forest health under a range of climatic and management conditions. To that end, using 2018 field observations, manual mapping of forest discoloration in aerial imagery, and multispectral Sentinel-2 imagery, we are developing 10 m/pixel estimates of European Beech discoloration across Switzerland during the 2018 to 2023 foliated periods. To date, we have 1) developed a robust interpolated Sentinel-2 time series from 2018 to 2023 for all of Switzerland, 2) trained a random forest model using 2018 ground control data and several vegetation indices from the Sentinel-2 time series to predict 2018 early leaf discoloration across Switzerland’s European Beech forests with c. 90% accuracy and, 3) used the Chlorophyll Red-Edge Index derived from the Sentinel-2 time series to approximate tree phenology and the length of the foliated period. We estimate that the 2018 foliated period was, on average, 45±19 days shorter for discolored sites as compared to sites without discoloration. Our results generally align well with previous studies of the 2018 drought in Switzerland and additional observational data is being compiled to validate the application of 2018 ground truth data across the foliated periods from 2018 to 2023. In combination with high-resolution soil maps, meteorological data, topographic derivatives, and information on Swiss forest structure, we will use empirical discoloration estimates to train ensemble models of site-specific susceptibility to drought. By artificially varying the meteorological and forest structure variables in these models we will have the unique opportunity to better understand European Beech susceptibility to drought and test the influence of a range of future climate scenarios and forest management strategies on Swiss forest health at a high spatial resolution.

Remote monitoring of defoliation by the beech leaf-mining weevil Rhynchaenus fagi in northern Spain

Microbial nitrogen turnover in soils under different types of natural forest

Microbial nitrogen turnover in soils under different types of natural forest

State of forest fund and planning in forestry

Severe weather (rainfall intensity) impacts significantly on transportation network. This research evaluates the impact of precipitation on vehicular congestion in the city of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Traffic and rainfall data was obtained for the month of June, July and August, 2018 at Location Junction, Port Harcourt. The data was analysed in excel software to understand the trends and patterns, and the rainfall impacts on road traffic through traffic volume and vehicle speed. For the period under study, it was observed that during the month of June, average traffic volume due to rainfall was 2584, while in the month of July, the average traffic volume due to rainfall was 2177, and for the month of August, the average traffic volume was 1446. The gradual decrease in average traffic volume was obviously as a result of increase in rainfall during the study. It also shows that rainfall affects traffic speed as drivers tends to slow down during rainfall, and this was used to develop a regression model that could be used to forecast traffic congestion (with respect to speed) during rainfall condition in the city of Port Harcourt. This model was tested in MATLAB, and the result validated the data analysis which was carried out through statistical tool (excel) which shows that when rainfall intensity increases, traffic volume and traffic speed decrease. Keywords: Excel Software, MATLAB, Rainfall intensity, Regression model, Traffic congestion.