Natural Resources Conservation and Research最新文献

{"title":"NRCR Editorial—Volume 6, Issue 2","authors":"Upaka S. Rathnayake","doi":"10.24294/nrcr.v6i2.4427","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24294/nrcr.v6i2.4427","url":null,"abstract":"The availability of natural resources is essential to human survival, and humanity and the environment have a shared destiny. Unfortunately, nowadays, there are numerous problems regarding the environment and the shortage of natural resources, greatly impacting human society. Therefore, it is crucial that humans preserve the environment and make appropriate use of natural resources. This issue primarily offers readers a compelling exploration of research on the effects of climate change and various pollutants on humanity and the natural environment as well as diseases of plants and how to prevent and control them. This issue may provide readers with a knowledge of the state of the environment and related problems which could inspire more people to preserve the environment and natural resources.","PeriodicalId":113263,"journal":{"name":"Natural Resources Conservation and Research","volume":"124 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139629760","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ecosystems conservation and analysis of the representativeness of protected areas of the Kyrgyz Republic in a climate change","authors":"Farida Balbakova","doi":"10.24294/nrcr.v6i2.2159","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24294/nrcr.v6i2.2159","url":null,"abstract":"The most valuable natural complexes and objects should be represented in the State protected areas (PA) system. In order to preserve biodiversity, it is necessary to expand protected lands to 10% of the total country area and create an ecological network that includes various categories of ecosystems. Each protected area can represent one or a number of ecosystems, depending on the height above sea level, landform, climate and other factors. In a perfect scenario, PA system of Kyrgyz Republic must represent all categories of ecosystems including mountain, steppe, semi-desert and desert. In this research the analysis of the representativeness of protected areas in Kyrgyz Republic was performed for the first time. For this purpose, GIS data sets for PAs and classification of ecosystems were used. According to the results, forest ecosystems have the highest coverage, whereas low mountain meadows and wetlands have the lowest coverage in PA system of Kyrgyz Republic. This research suggests that this type of analysis is an important tool for biodiversity conservation and evaluation of an ecological vulnerability.","PeriodicalId":113263,"journal":{"name":"Natural Resources Conservation and Research","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139245706","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Production of biopigment by Monascus ruber AUMC 245 under submerged fermentation and its application as colorants of some food products","authors":"Osama M. Darwesh, Mohamed R. Badr, Mousa A. Salem, Mohamed B. Atta, Mahmoud E. El-sayed","doi":"10.24294/nrcr.v6i2.2418","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24294/nrcr.v6i2.2418","url":null,"abstract":"The goal of the current investigation was to examine the production of red biopigment by Monascus ruber AUMC 245 during submerged fermentation and assess its safety as a bio-colorant in the food sector due to due to only sensory evaluation in food products. The various factors used for the production of red pigments, citrinin, and biomass yield were follows: 20 ℃–40 ℃ of temperature, 4.5–8.5 of pH, carbon and nitrogen sources. The optimum conditions were 30 ℃, pH 6.5, rice, peptone and incubation time for 10 days. The produced biopegment was without mycotoxin (citrinin). So, it is suitable for application in food industry. Kids jelly cola, ice sherbets and luncheon meat were prepared using the red pigments as natural colorant. The tested foods colored by nature biopigment appeared sensory results (90%) as acceptable consuming evaluation. It was not far from the applied industrial chemical one, but it is advantages by safe conditions. In conclusion, we can state that the obtained red pigments are safe to use in food products instead of chemical one.","PeriodicalId":113263,"journal":{"name":"Natural Resources Conservation and Research","volume":"80 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136010533","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Use of mathematical optimization to construct optimal reservoir operating rules—A case study of the Barna reservoir in Narmada Basin, India","authors":"Nesa Ilich","doi":"10.24294/nrcr.v6i2.2256","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24294/nrcr.v6i2.2256","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explains the benefits of using mathematical optimization to construct high performance reservoir operating rules and the related water rationing (deficit sharing) policies. The principal idea of the proposed approach is to generate perfect solutions obtained from an LP-based optimization model with the assumed foreknowledge of inflows represented with historical natural flows that are matched in the model with the current or projected levels of water demands. Water demands may include a mix of on-stream (e.g., e-flow targets or hydro power) and off-stream demands (irrigation or industry). The paper demonstrates the benefits of the proposed methodology by developing and testing short term operating rules on the Barna reservoir in Narmada River Basin in India. It shows that it is possible to achieve simulated results that follow the proposed rules and differ by only 2.5% in terms of the mean annual deficits from the best possible performance obtained using mathematical optimization with full foreknowledge of inflows.","PeriodicalId":113263,"journal":{"name":"Natural Resources Conservation and Research","volume":"103 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136378094","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Advantages of ozone disinfection method for water purification over chlorine disinfection","authors":"Amjad Hossen, Firoz Ahmed, Siddhartha Sankar Saha, Md. Ibrahim H. Mondal","doi":"10.24294/nrcr.v6i2.2090","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24294/nrcr.v6i2.2090","url":null,"abstract":"The improvement of various advancements for water sanitization is a significant issue. Among numerous elective drinking water treatment advances, the well-known disinfectant techniques are ozonation and chlorination to treat drinking water. All through the ozonation procedure, it produces biodegradable organic by-products while in the chlorination process, some risky by-products (trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids) are generated. Because of the possible danger of these results, several water purification methods have been reported, such as ozonation, chlorination, UV, etc. During ozonation, exceptionally reactive hydroxyl radicals are produced, which has a crucial effect on purifying water. In this paper, we have discussed the wide use of ozone disinfectants for water treatment with an emphasis on radical chemistry of ozonization as well as advanced oxidation processes instead of the chlorination process, low-cost ozone generation processes, the impact of ozone and chlorine disinfectants on cryptosporidium oocysts, and the removal of seven strains microbes from drinking water. The favorable circumstances, hindrances of the utilization of ozone and chlorine in wastewater treatment, and their confinements in water treatment innovation just as the elective advances, for example, ozone-based oxidation process, catalytic ozonation, photocatalytic oxidation, and so on are additionally clarified in this paper.","PeriodicalId":113263,"journal":{"name":"Natural Resources Conservation and Research","volume":"99 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135015572","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Composite effect of adaptation to climate variability, agrometeorological information, and socioeconomic and institutional factors on agricultural productivity in Kenya","authors":"Godfrey Obwina Atsiaya, Eric Obedy Gido, Kenneth Waluse Sibiko, Joseph Jabu Mbudzya","doi":"10.24294/nrcr.v6i2.2290","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24294/nrcr.v6i2.2290","url":null,"abstract":"Climate variability has adversely affected agriculture and adaptation strategies are significant in enhancing resilience hence ensuring food security. Agrometeorological services are essential in decision-making and developing farmers’ specific adaptive capacities mainly when variability affect agricultural productivity. This study focuses on the composite effect of adaptation to climate variability, agrometeorological information, socioeconomic and institutional factors on agricultural productivity in Kenya. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to obtain a sample size of 384 sorghum farmers. The study used an endogenous switching regression model to control for the selection problem arising from adaptation to climate variability on agricultural productivity. Results indicate that extension contacts and education level were positively significant among adapters of climate variability. Additionally, the proportion of income allocated for farming was positively significant among non-adapters. On the other hand, access to credit, gender and age of decision makers were negatively significant among adapters of climate variability. Similarly, age was negatively significant among non-adapters of climate variability. Overall, adapters to climate variability had higher sorghum output than non-adapters. This study recommends that policymakers and other key stakeholders could increase the number of extension contacts and promote education to farmers so that they can access agrometeorological information, hence adaptation to climate variability.","PeriodicalId":113263,"journal":{"name":"Natural Resources Conservation and Research","volume":"43 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135939191","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Performance and emissions of water-emulsified diesel fuel in an IDI diesel engine under varying engine load","authors":"Pedro Oliveira, F. Brójo","doi":"10.24294/nrcr.v6i2.2460","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24294/nrcr.v6i2.2460","url":null,"abstract":"This paper aims to verify the possibility of utilising water-in-diesel emulsions (WiDE) as an alternative drop-in fuel for diesel engines. An 8% WiDE was produced to be tested in a four-stroke, indirect injection (IDI) diesel engine and compared to EN590 diesel fuel. An eddy current brake and an exhaust gas analyser were utilised to measure different engine parameters such as torque, fuel consumption, and emissions at different engine loads. The results show that the engine running on emulsified fuel leads to a reduction in torque and power, an increase in the specific fuel consumption, and slightly better thermal efficiency. The highest percentual increment of thermal efficiency for WiDE is obtained at 100% engine load, 5.68% higher compared to diesel. The emissions of nitric oxide (NO) and carbon dioxide (CO2) are reduced, but carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbons (HC) emissions are increased, compared to traditional diesel fuel. The most substantial decrease in NO and CO2 levels was achieved at 75% engine load with 33.86% and 25.08% respectively compared to diesel.","PeriodicalId":113263,"journal":{"name":"Natural Resources Conservation and Research","volume":"37 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133136331","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Socioeconomic, environmental, and health impacts of reusing treated wastewater in agriculture in some Arab countries, including occupied Palestine, in view of climate change","authors":"H. Salem","doi":"10.24294/nrcr.v6i2.2229","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24294/nrcr.v6i2.2229","url":null,"abstract":"The increase in water stress and shortage, facing many countries around the world, is one of the main difficulties confronting practical progress and sustainable development and management. Accordingly, managing the water assets of many countries around the world is nowadays a big challenge due to immense difficulties and vulnerabilities, including rapid industrialization and urbanization processes, population growth, geopolitical instability, and the effects of environmental changes, namely global warming and climate change. Because of global fresh waters scarcity and shortage, the demand for using non-conventional water resources, such as reusing treated wastewater for irrigation and industrial purposes, has become a nessitiy. However, the reuse of effluents for agricultural irrigation can have negative impacts on crop quality and soil conditions, as well as on public health and the environment. Moreover, improper management of agricultural irrigation with treated wastewater can also cause problems for plant production and soils’ physical and chemical propeties. This paper investigates the status of freshwater and wastewater in view of climate change, and socioeconomic, environmental, and health impacts of reusing treated wastewater for irrigation in the Arab region, with the focus on the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), as an example. The paper concludes that: 1) Approximately 13.2 billion cubic meters (BCM) of wastewater is yearly produced in the Arab countries, of which 5.7 BCM (43.2%) is treated and 7.5 MCM (56.8%) is untreated and dumped in open environments; 2) Regarding the OPT, where more than 87% of its fresh water resources are controlled and forcefully taken by the Israeli occupation authorities, Palestinians discharge large amounts of untreated wastewater into open lands (as in the case of the occupied West Bank) and in the Mediterranean Sea (as in the case of occupied and besieged Gaza Strip); and 3) The reused portion of treated wastewater in the OPT is close to zero.","PeriodicalId":113263,"journal":{"name":"Natural Resources Conservation and Research","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130727488","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Influence of contemporary warming on landscape-zonal systems of the East-European sub-continent: Predictive empirical-statistical modeling","authors":"E. Kolomyts","doi":"10.24294/nrcr.v6i1.2054","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24294/nrcr.v6i1.2054","url":null,"abstract":"Presented in the given article regional geo-ecological prognoses are based on the construction of discrete empirical-statistical models of zonal and regional ecosystems. The analysis was carried out on the examples of the flat territories of the Volga River basin, as well as the northern macro-slope of the Main Caucasian ridge. Regional landscape-ecological calculations and mapping were carried out according to the global climatic models GISS-1988 and E GISS-2007 belong­ing to the family of models of general atmospheric circulation. The strategy of geo-ecological prognosis was as follows: first to identify the selected ecosystem objects (either zonal type of plant formations and regional kinds of landscape) to certain values of contemporary climatic conditions and then to estimate the most probable transformation of the revealed ecological niches of the given objects according to the expected climatic changes for the given prognostic date. The geo-ecological analysis has been performed using mainly two types of empirical models: (a) informational, describing the geo-component interrelations, serving as a basis for the regional bank of their ecological niches that characterizes their parametric space; (b) “fuzzy” set-theoretical models, describing the polysystem units of landscape-zonal organization by operations with the ecological niches as descriptive vectors. Predictions of ecosystem transformations include two stages of analysis: (1) evaluation of the probabilities of changes in the functional states of ecosystems and (2) calculations of the rates of ecosystem transformations. Quantitative predictive analysis is carried out by means of operations with the hydro-thermal niches of zonal-regional ecosystems. The ecological estimates of forthcoming global warming refer first of all to the functional but not structural-morphological prediction. The most probable directions and degree of conversion of the ecosystem are estimated by the maximum values of transformation. The algorithms of predictive calculations are described in detail for both stages of analysis. The results of the zonal-regional prognostic analysis are presented in both graphic-analytical models and small-scale maps.","PeriodicalId":113263,"journal":{"name":"Natural Resources Conservation and Research","volume":"78 6","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114094868","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Emission of greenhouse gasses from 2010 to 2020—Good intentions vs. reality","authors":"L. Carlsen","doi":"10.24294/nrcr.v6i1.2076","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24294/nrcr.v6i1.2076","url":null,"abstract":"Three main indicators, i.e., the net greenhouse gas emissions, the net greenhouse gas emissions from land use and forestry, and the population covered by the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy signatories have been suggested by Eurostat as indicators for the description of the climate action—the Sustainable Development Goal 13. The present study describes the ranking of the 27 European Union member states plus the combined EU based on a simultaneous inclusion of all three indicators. It turned out that the covenant indicator was the most important. Thus, subsequently, a ranking of the countries based on a) the covenant indicator and b) the greenhouse gas emission indicators was compared elucidating virtually no correspondence, i.e., signing a covenant with a lot of good intentions is not reflected in a decreased or reduced emission of greenhouse gases. The discrepancy between the political will and the actual action is unambiguous.","PeriodicalId":113263,"journal":{"name":"Natural Resources Conservation and Research","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125114586","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}