RESUMO
Escalating concern over global warming, which is mostly associated with deforestation, has led to the development of new classes of materials that can replace wood and better utilise natural resources. Presently, waste is a significant factor in recycling. In this regard, one of the leading contributors to waste is agricultural waste, which includes dried branches, leaves of trees, plants, and other organic materials. In the current study, waste from corn agriculture was utilised as a potential reinforcement for the fabrication of corn stalk-low density polyethylene (CS-LDPE) composites via an injection moulding technique at 170 °C. The different parameters were assessed to develop composites using CS, including physico-chemical, macromolecular, mineralogical, elemental, and morphological analysis. The amount of corn stalk (CS) was varied from 10 to 50 wt% with respect to the polymer. The mechanical, physical and thermal performance of the composites was examined. The density and water absorption of the composites were found to remain within the ranges of 1.00-1.11 g/cm3 and 0.22-1.01 %, respectively, whereas these parameters increased as the proportion of CS increased. The thermal conductivity decreases with the addition of CS from 0.36964 ± 0.020 to 0.22388 ± 0.002 W/mK. It was observed that adding CS to the composites increased their tensile and flexural properties, but decreased their impact strength. The maximum flexural strength of 14.40 ± 1.558 MPa, flexural modulus of 752.53 ± 180.409 MPa, tensile strength of 10.49 ± 0.946 MPa and tensile modulus of 539.79 ± 91.044 MPa were observed with a 50 % CS content. The results suggest that these materials have considerable potential to serve as a cost-effective substitute for the conventional lignocellulosic fillers in the manufacturing of wood-plastic composites.
RESUMO
Anthropogenic land use and land cover changes are major drivers of environmental degradation and declining soil health across heterogeneous landscapes in Central India. To examines the land cover changes and spatio-temporal variations in forest carbon stock and soil organic carbon (SOC) over the past 25 years in central India. Geospatial techniques, coupled with ground measurements were employed to detect changes in land cover, carbon stocks in vegetation, and soil carbon in various vegetation types. The results indicate that forested areas have decreased, while agriculture and habitation have expanded between 1997 and 2022. Vegetation C stocks varied significantly (P < 0.05) from 39.42 to 139.95 Mg ha-1 and the SOC varied from 7.02 to 17.98 Mg ha-1 under different soil profiles across vegetation types, which decreased with soil depth, while the pH and bulk density increased. The maximum bulk density in the soil was found at a depth of 40-60 cm (lower profile) in Bamboo Brake, while the minimum was observed under Dense Mixed Forest at a depth of 0-20 cm (top profile). The topsoil profile contributed 33.6%-39%, the middle profile (20-40 cm) was 33.6%-34.4%, and the lower profile was 26.5%-30.8% of soil organic carbon. The study site has experienced rapid carbon losses due to changes in land cover, such as illegal expansion of agriculture, encroachments into forest fringes, and activities like selective logging and overgrazing, which have degraded dense forests. The ecological engineering of degraded ecosystems poses a great challenge and application of complex biological, mechanical and engineering measures is highly cumbersome, expensive, uneconomical and practically not feasible for upscaling. Nevertheless, proposed nature-based solutions mimic natural reparation and processes provide sustainable interventions for the reclamation of ruined landscapes besides improving ecological integrity and rendering many co-benefits to ecosystems and human societies.