Deciphering the response of thirteen apple cultivars for growth, fruit morphology and fruit physico-chemical attributes during different years.

Apple cultivation is one of the most significant means of subsistence in the Kashmir region of the northwestern Himalayas. It is considered as the backbone of the region's economy. Apple cultivation in the region is dominated by a late maturing cultivar "Red Delicious" which usually on maturity causes glut in the market. In order to bring new cultivars in the cultivation, and to expand the maturity season, it is necessary to evaluate the new cultivars on fruit physico-chemical attributes which ultimately decide the market rates before recommending to farmers for cultivars adoption. Therefore, the current study was carried out to evaluate thirteen apple cultivars on physico-chemical attributes over two years, 2017 and 2018 under agro-climatic conditions of Kashmir region The results revealed that cultivars differed significantly in terms of physico-chemical properties. Cultivars with the highest and lowest values for initial fruit set, fruit drop, final fruit retention, and fruit firmness in 2017 did not follow the same trend in 2018. During 2017 and 2018, cultivar Mollie's Delicious possessed the highest fruit length (72.39 mm and 81.45 mm), fruit diameter (81.18 mm and 84.14 mm), and fruit weight (205.85 g and 247.16 g), whereas cultivar Baleman's Cider had the lowest values (50.76 mm and 52.83 mm, 60.10 mm and 62.08 mm, and 71.46 g and 86.94 g), respectively. The harvesting dates were quite spread out during both years of study. Cultivar Mollie's Delicious was harvested the earliest in both years, on August 5th, 2017 and August 8th, 2018. Cultivar Fuji Zehn Aztec was the last cultivar harvested in 2017 on October 2 and in 2018 on October 5. The maximum number of seeds per fruit was noticed in the cultivar Mollie's Delicious (8.34 and 8.71) during both 2017 and 2018, respectively. Cultivar Starkrimson had the fewest seeds per fruit in 2017 (7.11) and 2018 (7.42). Cultivar Baleman's Cider had the highest acidity in 2017 (0.63%) and 2018 (0.52%). In both 2017 (0.25%) and 2018 (0.23%), the Adam's Pearmain cultivar was the least acidic. Cultivar Allington Pippin (16.13 °Brix) and Red Gold (16.73 °Brix) had the highest TSS in 2017 and 2018, respectively, whereas Vance Delicious (12.30 °Brix) and Top Red (10.78 °Brix) had the lowest TSS in 2017 and 2018, respectively. The cultivars Mollie's Delicious and Red Gold had the highest total sugars (11.33 and 11.40%) in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Cultivar Baleman's Cider had the lowest total sugars (9.82%) in 2017 while Top Red (9.78%) in 2018. The cultivar Vance Delicious had the highest ratio of leaves to fruits in 2017 (55.44) and for Shalimar Apple-2 in 2018 (49.65). In 2017, cultivars Fuji Zehn Aztec (29.26) and Silver Spur (24.51), had the fewest leaves per fruit. The highest leaf chlorophyll content was recorded in cultivar Shireen (3.50 and 3.57 mg g-1 fresh weight) during the years 2017 and 2018, respectively. Cultivar Baleman's Cider had the lowest leaf chlorophyll content (2.15 mg g-1 fresh weight) during 2017, while cultivar Allington Pippin (2.09 mg g-1 fresh weight) had the lowest leaf chlorophyll content in 2018. The cultivars Fuji Zehn Aztec, with a yield efficiency of 0.78 kg/cm2 and Silver Spur with a yield efficiency of 1.14 kg/cm2 were the most yield efficient during the years 2017 and 2018, respectively. Cultivar Shalimar Apple-2 was least performing with yield efficiencies of 0.05 and 0.07 kg/cm2 during 2017 and 2018, respectively.The findings suggest that cultivar Mollie's Delicious commercially matures first and has the highest fruit length, diameter, and weight; hence, it can be a good option for cultivation so as to fetch the maximum price in the market when other cultivars are still maturing. Shalimar Apple-2 is precluded for cultivation due to least yield efficiency, whereas cultivars Fuji Zehn Aztec and Silver Spur are recommended to farmers for their higher yield efficiency.

Seed priming with methyl jasmonate mitigates copper and cadmium toxicity by modifying biochemical attributes and antioxidants in Cajanus cajan.

Contamination of agricultural soils with heavy metals (HMs) has posed major threat to the environment as well as human health. The aim of this study was to appraise the efficiency of key-antioxidant enzymes in enhancing plants' tolerance to HMs (heavy metals) like copper (Cu) and Cadmium (Cd), under the action of methyl jasmonate (Me-JA) in Cajanus cajan L. Seeds of C. cajan treated with Me-JA (0, 1 nM) were discretely subjected to noxious concentrations of Cu and Cd (0, 1, 5 mM) and raised for 12 days under controlled conditions in plant growth chamber for biochemical analysis. In contrast to Cd, Cu triggered oxidative stress more significantly (44.54% in 5 mM Cu increase in MDA as compared to control) and prominently thereby affecting plants' physiological and biochemical attributes. By activating the antioxidant machinery, Me-JA pre-treatment reduced HMs-induced oxidative stress, increased proline production, glutathione (41.95% under 5 mM Cu when treated with 1 nM Me-JA treatment) and ascorbic acid content by 160.4 % under aforemtioned treatments thus improving the redox status. Thus, in light of this our results put forward a firm basis of the positive role that Me-JA might play in the mitigation of oxidative stress caused due to HMs stress by stimulating antioxidant defense system leading to overall improvement of growth of C. cajan seedlings.

Predicting habitat suitability and niche dynamics of Dactylorhiza hatagirea and Rheum webbianum in the Himalaya under projected climate change.

In the era of anthropocene, global warming tends to alter the distribution range of the plant species. Highly fragile to such changes are the species that are endemic, inhabit higher elevations and show narrow distribution ranges. Predicting and plotting the appropriate suitable habitats and keeping knowledge of how climate change will affect future distribution become imperative for designing effective conservation strategies. In the current study we have used BIOMOD ensemble forecasting to study the current and predict the future potential distribution of Dactylorhiza hatagirea and Rheum webbianum and describe their niche dynamics in Himalayan biodiversity hotspots under climate change scenarios using ecospat R package. Results reveal sufficient internal evaluation metrics with area under curve (AUC) and true skill statistic (TSS) values greater than 0.8 i.e. 0.93 and 0.98 and 0.82 and 0.90 for D. hatageria and R. webbianum respectively, which signifies robustness of the model. Among different bioclimatic variables, bio_1, bio_3, bio_8, bio_14 and bio_15 were the most influential, showing greater impact on the potential distribution of these plant species. Range change analysis showed that both the studied species will show significant contraction of their suitable habitats under future climatic scenarios. Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 for the year 2070, indicate that the suitable habitats could be reduced by about 51.41% and 70.57% for D. hatagirea and R. webbianum respectively. The results of the niche comparisons between the current and future climatic scenarios showed moderate level of niche overlap for all the pairs with D. hatageria showing 61% overlap for current vs. RCP4.5 2050 and R. webbianum reflects 68% overlap for current vs. RCP4.5 2050. Furthermore, the PCA analysis revealed that climatic conditions for both the species vary significantly between current and future scenarios. The similarity and equivalence test showed that the niche between present and future climate change scenarios is comparable but not identical. From the current study we concluded that the influence of climate change on the habitat distribution of these plant species in the Himalayan biodiversity hotspots can be considered very severe. Drastic reduction in overall habitat suitability poses a high risk of species extinction and thereby threatens to alter the functions and services of these fragile ecosystems. Present results can be used by conservationists for mitigating the biodiversity decline and exploring undocumented populations on one hand and by policymakers in implementing the policy of conservation of species by launching species recovery programmes in future on the other. The outcomes of this study can contribute substantially to understand the consequences of climate change in the Himalayan biodiversity hotspots.

Does Lake Balaton affected by pollution? Assessment through surface water quality monitoring by using different assessment methods.

In order to maintain a good environmental status of surface waters, an assessment of water quality carried out at specific intervals to monitor the changes of water quality in function of time. Human knowledge and experience are currently focused on using assessment methods, especially the integration of multiple constraining factors and considering them in conjugation with the correct decision-making process concerning the environment. When surface water is highly exposed to human activities, either from recreational or economic activity, the degree of vulnerability is high, and the quality of surface water is highly compromised. In case of Lake Balaton, there are many activities that can disrupt water dynamics. The first goal of this study is to determine the location of the least and most polluted sites around Lake Balaton. The processing of data was carried out by using multi-criteria decision techniques and environmental impact assessment method based on physical-chemical parameters in comparison with the limiting parameters. Based on the results of those methods water quality needs to be improved in western parts of the lake by using several geoengineering treatment techniques. This work covers a novel approach to comparing methods based on sum of ranking differences, whereas many method comparison studies suffer from ambiguity or from comparisons not being quite fair. This problem can be avoided if there are differences between ideal and actual rankings.

Complex interactions and different possible pathways among functional components of the aquatic microbial world in Farasan Archipelago, Southern Red Sea, Saudi Arabia.

This work aims to outline the dynamics of trophic links between the three main microbial components (bacteria, nanoflagellates, and ciliates) of the Farasan Archipelago in order to establish a baseline for future research in this area. The Farasan Archipelago lies along the southwestern coast of the Saudi Arabia, southern Red Sea between 16°20'-17°10'N and 41°30'-42°30'E and had been declared as marine and terrestrial reserve by the year 1996. Three different sites were chosen for this study, with each site visited bimonthly for 18 months from September 2016 to February 2018. Bacteria, nanoflagellates and ciliates were enumerated in order to explore the complex interactions between the main microbial categories in sea waters of the Farasan Archipelago. High abundances were recorded during the present study for bacteria (8.7 × 106 bacteria ml-1), nanoflagellates (3.7 × 104 TNAN ml-1) and ciliates (40.4 ciliates ml-1). The paper discusses the various potential pathways controlling the complex interactions between these microbial groups in this part of the southern Red Sea. It is concluded that a linear trophic chain consisting of bacteria; heterotrophic nanoflagellates; filter feeding ciliates is a major route by which the production of bacteria is transferred to the higher consuming levels, thereby confirming the high importance of t bottom-up control (food supply), alongside top-down control (predation) in regulating bacterial abundances in the Farasan Archipelago. During the present investigation, each nanoflagellate ingested between 11 and 87 bacteria in one hour, while each ciliate consumed between 20 and 185 nanoflagellates every hour. These calculated grazing rates of protistan eukaryotes confirmed the role of heterotrophic nanoflagellates as the main consumers of bacteria, and the role of ciliates as the major control for the heterotrophic nanoflagellate population dynamics, and thus the top predators within the microbial plankton assemblage in the Farasan Archipelago.

Environmental assessment of physical-chemical features of Lake Nasser, Egypt.

Lake Nasser is one of the largest man-made lakes on earth. It has a vital importance to Egypt for several decades because of the safe water supply of the country. Therefore, the water quality of the Lake Nasser must be profoundly investigated, and physico-chemical parameter changes of the water of the Lake Nasser should be continuously monitored and assessed. This work describes the present state of the physico-chemical (nitrate-nitrogen, nitrite-nitrogen, orthophosphate, total phosphate content, dissolved oxygen content, chemical oxygen demand, and biological oxygen demand) water parameters of Lake Nasser in Egypt at nine measurement sites along the Lake Nasser. The algorithm was devised at the University of Pannonia, Hungary, for the evaluation of the water quality. The aquatic environmental indices determined alongside the Lake Nasser fall into the category of "good" water quality at seven sampling sites and exhibited "excellent" water quality at two sampling sites according to Egyptian Governmental Decree No. 92/2013. In light of the tremendous demand for safe and healthy water supply in Egypt and international requirements, the water quality assessment is a very important tool for providing reliable information on the water quality. The protocol for water quality assessment could significantly contribute to the provision of high-quality water supply in Egypt. In conclusion, it can be stated that the parameters under investigation in different regions of Lake Nasser fall within the permissible ranges and the water of the Lake has good quality for drinking, irrigation, and fish cultures according to Egyptian standards; however, according to European specifications, there are steps to be accomplished for future water quality improvement.

High-Throughput Screening of Chlorella Vulgaris Growth Kinetics inside a Droplet-Based Microfluidic Device under Irradiance and Nitrate Stress Conditions.

Biodiesel is an eco-friendly renewable fuel that can be derived from microalgae. Maximization of biomass and lipid productivities are considered the main challenges for algal biodiesel production. Since conventional batch cultures are time-, space-, and reagent-consuming with many restrictions to apply many replicates, microfluidic technology has recently emerged as an alternative low-cost and efficient technology with high throughput repeatability and reproducibility. Different applications of microfluidic devices in algal biotechnology have been reported, including cell identification, sorting, trapping, and metabolic screening. In this work, Chlorella vulgaris was investigated by encapsulating in a simple droplet-based micro-array device at different light intensities of 20, 80, and 200 µmol/m2/s combined with different nitrate concentrations of 17.6, 8.8, and 4.4 mM. The growth results for C. vulgaris within microfluidic device were compared to the conventional batch culture method. In addition, the effect of combined stress of deficiencies in irradiance and nitrogen availability were studied to illustrate their impact on the metabolic profiling of microalgae. The results showed that the most optimum favorable culturing conditions for Chlorella vulgaris growth within the microfluidic channels were 17.6 mM and 80 µmol/m2/s.

Cilioprotists as biological indicators for estimating the efficiency of using Gravel Bed Hydroponics System in domestic wastewater treatment.

Interest has increased over the last several years in using different methods for treating sewage. The rapid population growth in developing countries (Egypt, for example, with a population of more than 87 millions) has created significant sewage disposal problems. There is therefore a growing need for sewage treatment solutions with low energy requirements and using indigenous materials and skills. Gravel Bed Hydroponics (GBH) as a constructed wetland system for sewage treatment has been proved effective for sewage treatment in several Egyptian villages. The system provided an excellent environment for a wide range of species of ciliates (23 species) and these organisms were potentially very useful as biological indicators for various saprobic conditions. Moreover, the ciliates provided excellent means for estimating the efficiency of the system for sewage purification. Results affirmed the ability of this system to produce high quality effluent with sufficient microbial reduction to enable the production of irrigation quality water.