International Journal of Forestry Research

Tropical Montane Cloud Forest (TMCF) is among the most vulnerable habitats to fragmentation, deforestation, and global climate change. A successful restoration program requires a comprehensive understanding of variables influencing seedling efficiency. This study was conducted on Sg. Terla Forest Reserve Cameron Highlands, Pahang, Malaysia. In this study, we used a randomized complete block design (RCBD) and measured the Magnolia champaca height, root collar diameter, diameter at breast height, plant survival, root diameter, main root length, lateral root length, root coiling, root direction, and chlorophyll content. The soil samples were taken to study the effect of different mulching materials on soil characteristics. We also measured soil compaction, soil texture, soil colour, soil moisture content, soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, total sulphur, available phosphorus, and exchanged potassium. This study indicates that mulching had no significant effect on plant height, diameter breast height, root collar diameter, and chlorophyll content between treatments. Although mulching had a significant effect on root diameter, main root length, and root distributions among treatments while for lateral root length and root:shoot ratio did not show a significant effect among treatments. However, oil palm mulching treatment had a greater effect on plant height, root collar diameter, and diameter at breast height growth, among treatments. Mulching significantly affected soil pH, soil moisture content, total sulphur, and potassium exchange. In contrast, mulching did not significantly affect soil organic carbon, total soil nitrogen, and soil available phosphorus between treatments.

Carissa edulis is a tropical plant belonging to the family Apocynaceae. The species is widely used in the preparation of various herbal medicines. Earlier works in Kenya show that an aqueous extract from the roots of C. edulis has remarkable anti-herpes simplex virus. Due to its medicinal value, the species has been overexploited in its natural range and requires conservation interventions. Studies show that the species has beneficial relationships with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) that can enhance restoration of its population; however, no study has been undertaken to document the diversity of these AMF species. This study evaluated the genetic diversity of AMF associated with the roots of C. edulis within Lake Victoria basin ecosystem of Kenya. A cross-sectional, laboratory-based prospective study was carried out from roots of C. edulis collected from six sites within the ecosystem. Root samples were collected from 6 points (replicates) per site. AMF was assessed through morphological characterization and sequencing of small subunit of ribosomal DNA. Morphological identification identified four genera of AMF (Gigaspora, Acaulospora, Scutellospora, and Glomus) with no significant difference among the sites. Molecular analysis also revealed presence of four genera, but only two (Glomus and Acaulospora) were common for both the analyses with Glomus as the most predominant genera. In all the sites, there were large numbers of spores both in soil and in the roots confirming the association between C. edulis and AMF.

Valuation of ecosystem services (ESs) can be typical as use values and passive use values. However, the prevailing conventional markets provide economic instruments such as price tags to ecosystem use values, but rarely on passive use values. This is limited since it does not provide comprehensive ecological values that will adequately support rational decision-making processes regarding ecological conservation. The study adopted the contingency valuation method (CVM) where three hundred and eighty households of communities living within the Elgeyo watershed were sampled. The findings recorded 97% of the population was willing to pay for the ESs quoted. Individual maximum WTP ranged between 1 USD and 57.1 USD (cultural), 1 USD and 95.2 USD (bequest), and 1 USD and 76.2 USD (biodiversity conservation). The overall mean maximum WTP was 7.4 ± 0.34 USD, 9.1 ± 0.49 USD, and 11.1 ± 0.68 USD for the cultural, bequest, and biodiversity, respectively. The multivariate regression (maximum WTP as a function of administrative location, education, income, sex, age, and livestock number) exhibited a significant difference regardless of multivariate criteria used, where Wilks’ lambda has F (75,203) = 4.03, . The findings provide an economic value for nonuse values that can be incorporated in total economic valuation (TEV) studies locally as well as provide an impetus on payment of ecosystem services (PES) in Kenya.

Salt stress is one of the serious abiotic stressors which limit the growth and development of important crops in agricultural lands. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) have been implemented as a strategy to mitigate the adverse effects due to an impact of salt stress through the structural and physiological adjustment. This study aimed to determine a relationship between salinity levels (0, 150, 300, and 450 mM NaCl) and AMF treatments (Glomus manihotis, Glomus etunicatum, and G. manihotis + G. etunicatum) to the salt tolerance of Leucaena leucocephala seedlings in a greenhouse. Salinity reduced the plant height, biomass, and root colonization by AMF. However, the inoculation of AMF, especially the consortium, ameliorated the negative effects by stabilizing the growth performance and supporting the photosynthetic outputs through optimum nutrient and mineral absorptions. These results were indicative through a significant interaction between salinity levels and the types of AMF treatment in all parameters except in the total leaf protein and proline contents from the two-way ANOVA results. Root colonization was highly correlated with the plant height, biomass, and total carbohydrate content with a maximum contribution conferred by the AMF consortium, based on Pearson’s correlation coefficient test and PCA analysis. Our study then showed the positive impact of AMF toward salt tolerance by L. leucocephala with potential application and cultivation in salt-stressed ecosystems.

This study, therefore, which is focused on forest systems services provisioning in Africa, case of Gambari Forest Reserve, Ibadan, Nigeria, provides policy makers, decision makers, ecologists, environmentalists, the academia, and other stakeholders with a document geared towards promoting national development through sustainable forest products utilization practices. In this study, a total of 200 key respondents participated in it, out of which 194 copies were returned and distributed among the seven main communities in the study area, namely, Ibusogbora, Oloowa, Daley north and south, Onipe, Mamu, Olubi, and Onipanu, respectively. The respondents stated that moringa 164 (84.5%), mint leaf (166 (85.6%), bitter kola 143 (73.7%), and shea tree accounts for 176 (90.7%), and the wood species utilized by producers in the study area include Leucaena leucocephala, Leucaena glauca, Gliricidia sepium, Tectona grandis, and Gmelina arborea, among others. The study recommends that there is need for African governments to restore public awareness campaign in the area of timber planting initiatives and sustainable forest resource management and increase allocation to fund forestry research in the African continent.

Before the arrival of white-nose syndrome in North America, the northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis) was a common cavity-roosting bat species in central Appalachian hardwood forests. Two successive prescribed burns on the Fernow Experimental Forest, West Virginia, in 2008 and 2009, were shown to positively affect maternity colony day-roost availability and condition in the near-term. However, whether immediate benefits were temporary and if burned forests actually experienced an accelerated loss of trees and snags possibly suitable for bats more than background loss in unburned forests became an important question following the species’ threatened designation. In 2016, we revisited 81 of 113 northern long-eared bat maternity colony day-roosts initially discovered in 2007–2009 with the objective of ascertaining if these trees and snags were still standing and thus potentially “available” for bat use. Initial tree or snag stage condition class and original year of discovery were contributory factors determining availability by 2016, whereas exposure to prescribed fire and tree/snag species decay resistance were not. Because forest managers may consider using habitat enhancement to improve northern long-eared bat survival, reproduction, and juvenile recruitment and must also protect documented day-roosts during forestry operations, we conclude that initial positive benefits from prescribed burning did not come at the expense of subsequent day-roost loss greater than background rates in these forests at least for the duration we examined.