Day 3 :
- Track 9: Waste Water Treatment & ReclamationTrack 10: Biodiversity & Its Allied AreasTrack 11: Archaeology & Anthropology
Session Introduction
Sudhanshu Sekhar Panda
University of North Georgia, USA
Title: Remote reach water quality assessment with Geospatial data
Biography:
Sudhanshu Sekhar Panda is an Associate Professor of GIS/Environmental Science in the Institute of Environmental Spatial Analysis of University of North Georgia, USA. He has completed his BS Degree in Agricultural Engineering from Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Orissa, India; M.S degree is in Environmental Remote Sensing for Geoinformation Development from Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand and PhD in Agricultural Engineering from North Dakota State University, USA. In his 27 years of professional life, he has experiences working in federal government, company and academia. He is an Avid Researcher along with his present professional responsibility of a Fulltime Teaching Faculty. Most of his research includes automated model development for environmental management decision support. He is Editor-in-Chief of O/S Journal of Spatial Hydrology and Editor of Journal of Biodiversity & Endangered Species and Journal of Ecosystem & Ecography. He has published more than 32 book chapters along with peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. Above all, he aspires and working towards to be one of the best teachers who makes life changing improvement in disadvantaged students.
Abstract:
The Federal Water Pollution Control Act or Clean Water Act of 1972 protects US waterby restoring and maintaining the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the nation’s waters by preventing point and nonpoint pollution sources. The Total Maximum Daily Load term in the U.S. Clean Water Act describes a value of the maximum amount of a pollutant that a body of water can receive while still meeting water quality standards. To meet the TMDL standard most of the counties, cities and states monitor the water quality of their rivers and streams on regular basis. However, the regular in situ water quality monitoring is expensive and time consuming. Th erefore, there is a need of developing inexpensive, quick and remote process to know the water quality of country’s water bodies. Use of geospatial technology is one of the best tools to develop water quality prediction models by studying the watershed environmental dynamics. Th e objective of the study is to develop algorithms using watershed based land use data and soil characteristics to estimate various water quality parameter values to support TMDL analysis. Real in situ monitored water quality parameter (DO, Temperature, BOD, TSS, pH, P, TKN, NH3-N, NO3-N, Alkalinity, Turbidity, Conductivity, Fecal Coliform and E. Coli) data were obtained from Gainesville city environmental department in Georgia from 2001-2013. Th e monitoring locations were used as exit points to delineate the respective watersheds with ArcSWAT hydrologic Model that used 10 m DEM. Landuse and soil data which directly infl uence the water quality of the reaches in the watershed were obtained for processing. National Agricultural Imagery Program (NAIP) 1 meter imagery from 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, and 2013, SSURGO data containing soil texture data were acquired from USDA NRCS Geospatial Data Gateway. Th e data were processed in ArcGIS 10.2 soft ware through the development of an automated geospatial model in ArcGIS Model Builder Platform. Th e NAIP images were masked to the watersheds and classifi ed with various prevailing land uses in the watershed using hybrid unsupervised and supervised image segmentation algorithms. Then, the land use class percentages and soil texture percentages were obtained to be correlated with the water quality parameter data of similar temporal period. Using the geospatial data based input data (Xn) correlation model were developed for individual water quality parameter values used as output data (Y) in SPSS statistics soft ware to develop the regression based best fit algorithm. Th ese algorithms developed for individual water quality parameters were tested and validated with diff erent year data. We obtained very good correlation (>90%) in predicting various water quality parameters with the use of landuse and soil data. Th is algorithm development protocols can be replicated in other locations of US and other countries to estimate water quality of reaches. This study will also support the TMDL team to know fi rst-hand about the quality of the reaches they would go for in-situ analysis.
Satish Sreedharamurthy
University of Mysore, India
Title: Mycoendophytic diversity associated with ethanomedicinal plants Ficus pumila linn and Mirabilis jalapa linn
Time : 09:50-10:15
Biography:
Satish Sreedharamurthy has done M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Microbiology from University of Mysore and he has been awarded UPG: JRF (1996-98); UPG:SRF (1998-2000); CSIR:SRF (2000-01) Post Doctoral Raman Research Fellow (2014-2015). He appointed as an Assistant Professor in University University of Mysore in 2003. Five Major Research Project awradede from various funding agencies namely UGC, DST, IOE, Govt. of India. Honoured Fellow of FISBT (2010) from International Society of Biotechnology. Guided 05 Ph.D. students in Microbiology. Published about 65 Research articles in National and International journals and also presented research fi ndings in 80 National and International conferences and Symposia.
Abstract:
Endophytic fungi are one of plant-associated microbiome which grows in healthy plant tissues for all or the most part of their life cycle without causing disease symptoms in the host plants. To expand knowledge about endophytic fungal diversity by culture-dependent technique the present study was undertaken. Two hundred-thirty eight (238) (19.83%) endophytic isolates were isolated from 1,200 plant tissue samples of stem and leaf collected from Mirabilis jalapa Linn. (Nyctaginaceae) and Ficus pumila Linn., (Moraceae) in three different seasons, namely summer, monsoon and winter. 238 endophytic isolates were categorized into 23 taxa, comprising 3 ascomycetes genera Chaetomium sp., Sporormia sp. and Xylaria sp. (10.92%), 5 coelomycetes genera Colletotrichum sp., Pestalotiopsis sp., Phoma sp., Phomopsis sp. and Phyllosticta sp. (18.06%), 11 hyphomycetes genera Acremomium sp., Alternaria sp., Aspergillus sp., Cladosporium sp., Curvularia sp., Drechslera sp., Fusarium sp., Myrothecium sp., Nigrospora sp., Penicillium sp. and Trichoderma sp. (55.46%), 2 zygomycetes genera Mucor sp. and Rhizopus sp. (2.94%), 2 morphospecies of Mycelia sterilia (8.4%). Colonization rates (%) of endophytic fungi for both the tissues were found to be relatively homogeneous (14.33% and 14.0%) and (18.66% and 18.33%) for Mirabilis jalapa and Ficus pumila. Endophytic fungal isolates were prevalent on leaf tissue of both plants (52.94%) than on stem tissue (47.0%). Aspergillus flavus and Xylaria sp., are dominant endophytic fungal genera in leaf while in stem species of Fusarium and Pestalotiopsis sp., were dominant in Mirabilis jalapa and Ficus pumila respectively. Endophytes segregated with varying degree of colonization during three sampling season among different tissues of the two hosts. There is no significant difference in Simpson, Shannon diversity and Species Richness indices values for Mirabilis jalapa due their relatively homogenous values. Overall diversity indices values for foliar endophytes of Ficus pumila were relatively high when compared to leaf and stem tissues of Mirabilis jalapa. But species richness was higher in stems of Mirabilis jalapa when compared with leaves and stems of Ficus pumila due the isolation 19 different endophytic fungal taxa.
Amleset Haile
Wageningen University & Research Center Ethiopia Project, Ethiopia
Title: Marketing of non timber forest products and forest management in Kaffa biosphere reserve, Ethiopia
Time : 10:15-10:40
Biography:
Amleset Haile, working as Assistant National Coordinator for Innovation Facilitation at the consortium of Wageningen University, Netherlands and six Ethiopian Universities called CASCAPE project. The project sets out to generate evidence for scaling of agricultural best practices and closely works with the Agricultural Growth Program of the country. She also works in a voluntary capacity in the country wide climate change movement and conservation management of protected areas in Ethiopia. Previously, she was a staff member of Mekelle University, Ethiopia as an Assistant Lecturer and researcher. Amleset got her Master’s degree in Management of Natural Resources (Management of protected areas) from Klagenfurt University, Austria in efforts to make her long-term dreams come true in combining nature and society through conservation and livelihood improvement activities. She has been part of many international conferences and undergone several international capacity building opportunities including being a fellow of the Environmental Leadership program at UC, Berkeley, USA and also fellow of the African women Scientists in Climate change and African women in Agricultural Research and Development post Masters fellow
Abstract:
Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are harvested for both subsistence and commercial use and play a key role in the livelihoods of millions of rural people. Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are important in rural southwest Ethiopia, Kaffa as a source of household income. Market players at various levels in marketing chains are interviewed to gather information on elements of marketing system–products, product differentiation, value addition, pricing, promotion, distribution, and marketing chains. The study, therefore, was conducted in Kaffa Biosphere reserve of southwest Ethiopia with the main objective of assessing and analyzing the contribution of NTFPs to rural livelihood and to the conservation of the biosphere reserve and to identify factors influencing in the marketing of the NTFP. Five villages were selected based on their proximity gradient from Bonga town and availability of NTFP. Formal survey was carried out on rural households selected using stratified random sampling. The results indicate that local people practice diverse livelihood activities mainly crops cultivation (cereals and cash crops) and livestock husbandry, gather forest products and off-farm/off-forest activities for surviva. NTFP trade is not a common phenomenon in southwest Ethiopia. The greatest opportunity exists for local level marketing of spices and other non timber forest products. Very little local value addition takes place within the region, and as a result local market players have little control. Policy interventions are required to enhance the returns to local collectors, which will also contribute to sustainable management of forest resources in Kaffa biosphere reserve.
Charan Kamal Sekhon
Sri Guru Granth Sahib World University, India
Title: An inventory of family Noctuidae (Noctuidae: Lepidoptera) from Himachal Pradesh
Time : 11:00-11:25
Biography:
Charan Kamal Sekhon has completed her MSc, MPhil and PhD from Department of Zoology and Environmental Sciences, Punjabi University Patiala. She has presented research papers in 16 National and International conferences and published various research papers in reputed journals. Currently, she is working as an Assistant Professor in Department of Zoology, Sri Guru Granth Sahib World University, India.
Abstract:
Lepidoptera comprising moths and butterflies is the third largest order in the class Insecta. Their numerical strength has been estimated to be about more than 35,000 described species referable to 4,200 described genera. They are usually dull colored moths with drab forewings, although some have brightly colored hind wings. They have thicker abdomen and robust body structure. The Noctuid moths can be easily distinguished on the basis of venation of the hind wing, where Sc+R1 are separated from Rs and are connected with the discal cell at base. Principally they are defined by the presence of tympanum on metathorax. The moths belonging to subfamily Noctuidae are of great economic importance as these include large number of minor and major pest species. The most important pests belonging to this family are known by their common names like armyworms, cutworms, bollworms, stemborers and rootfeeders. An inventory of family Noctuidae belonging to super family Noctuoidea has been prepared from Himachal Pradesh. As many as 2300 representatives of 105 species referable to 69 genera have been studied and 10 species have been recorded for the first time from this area.
Matt Charnock
Conservationist, USA
Title: The Liasis lexicon: Breaking-down the genus and its new place in Australasian Herpetology
Time : 11:25-11:50
Biography:
Matt Charnock is a well-practiced, dynamic conservationist, occupying numerous outreach mediums. He’s been frequently published in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species’ amphibian journal, FrogLog, as well as having worked hand-in-hand with various nonprofits from around the world, promoting the connection between a healthier, more stable community and the sustainability of its endemic ecosystem. Matt also writes for various branding publications and news outlets, totted as being a “creative wordsmith with a passion for preservation.” Matt also participates in speaking engagements hosted by Texas State Parks and Wildlife Department, highlighting the state’s faunal diversity.
Abstract:
The Liasis genus represents four—well, now five—species of Australasia pythons, all filling various ecological niches; pythons in the Liasis genus also represent some of the most successful pythons in the dawn of the Anthropocene. Although all species in the genus are, phenotypically speaking, quite similar, there’s a great deal of genetic drift and sub-speciation that’s been at the center of many taxonomy savvy herpetologist; numerous genera have now been either assimilated into Liasis or, at one point in time, been classified as a monotypic genus outside the parent genus. Such a species, the Papuan python, has been in-and-out of the genus for the better part of a century-and-a-half—and has recently been stripped of their Apodora exclusivity. The Reynold’s paper that was officially published in early February of 2014 represents, to date, the most concrete, well-executed attempt at shading the grays within the Pythonidae and Boidae families. By pooling sample animals from a study group that later amounted to a species-level phylogeny of eighty-three-percent, Toward a Tree-of-Life for the boas and pythons: Multilocus species-level phylogeny with unprecedented taxon sampling represents a pinnacle shift in both Pythonidae and Boidae nomenclature—and the Liasis genus, subsequently, found itself in a game of musical chairs. However, should heavy deforestation and harsh irrigation practices continue to run rampant, there may not be a single chair left for them to occupy when the music’s cut-off.
Gloria Cuenca-Bescós
University of Zaragoza, Spain
Title: Biodiversity, impact, vulnerability and adaptation in human evolution
Biography:
Gloria Cuenca Bescós has completed her Ph.D at the age of 26 years from Zaragoza University and Postdoctoral studies from Groningen University (The Nederlands) and the Geological Institut of Praha (Check Republic). She is the Director of Biostratigraphic and Biodiversity Studies of Fossil of Small Vertebrates in the Archaeo-Paleontological sites of the Pleistocene of Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain. She has published more than 70 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an Editorial Board Member and Reviewer of many reputed journals.
Abstract:
Changes in vegetation due to climate change that began 2.8 million years ago in East Africa were crucial in the emergence of the genus Homo. Data on the relative diversity of small mammal communities at the sites Atapuerca indicate a period of depopulation of Europe, linked to climate change made between 0.7 and 0.6 million years. Th e extinction of mega fauna in the Iberian plateau during the Upper Pleistocene could be related to the activities of Neanderthals. Th is infringed the existence of the Neanderthals, their extinction could be related with this and rapid climate fluctuations suff ered in Europe in the late Pleistocene. Th e change in the economy and mentality due to the Neolithic revolution are the root causes of the impact of human activities on ecosystems worldwide from about 10,000 years ago.