Journal of Research and Development

Centre of Research for Development

University of Kashmir

Print ISSN: 0972 - 5407 Online ISSN: 0972 - 5407

The Aculeate wasps and some of bee species select woody habitat for nesting and form guilds in preexisting wood cavities. The guild form of existence in woods is an important component of various ecosystem services like predation, diversity equilibrium and pollination. The variation in species diversity parameters is clearly associated with environmental structure, habitat, substratum, foraging resources, and interaction with other organisms. Generally, in bees and wasps the nesting periods is most crucial and it demands the abundant resources in the form of habitat, forage (food) and plant diversity. Females in both wasps and bees construction their nesting cavity during maximum of their life cycle, followed by provisioning of young ones. We observed maximum dominance of two wood nesters (Xylocopa valga and Megachilidae species). Under cold arid conditions of Ladakh maximum percentage of cavities and holes for bee and wasp nesting are present in older willow, followed by populous, apricot and apple. Due to low microbial activity the availability of nesting cavities in hard wood are deficient, contributing to lower pollinator diversity in Ladakh region. Unlike soil nesting species, the real causes of wood nesting by wasps and bees is unknown. The aim of the current paper is to highlight the proximate reasons of nest choosing state, setting effective conservation and management procedures for Hymenopteran species.

Plant cell cultures signify possible source of important secondary metabolites which can be used as, nutraceuticals, food additives and medicines. The synthesis of photo-chemicals by the cell cultures in contrast to these in plants is self-governing of environmental conditions and quality fluctuations. In numerous cases, the chemical synthesis of metabolites is not possible or economically viable. Furthermore, the natural food additives are better accepted by consumers in contrast to those which are artificially formed. The secondary metabolites of plants can be identified as compounds that do not play a recognised role in maintaining fundamental life processes in plants, but do play an important role in the plant's interaction with its environment. In the present study, the process of obtaining the secondary metabolites from plant cell cultures is characterized as a multi-stage strategy, and each link would be defined according to specifications of cell cultures or products. For establishing of great production and fast-growing cell lines, the parent plants should be selected. The expression of synthetic pathways can be influenced by the supply of precursors, ecological conditions and the application of elicitors, and also can be changed by superior treatments such as immobilization and biotransformation. Widely bacteria and fungi have been used for the production of antibiotics or amino acids. Simplification of the methods for product recovery, based on the concept of continuous release of products into the increasing media, will improve the efficiency of bio processing. Chemical or physical influences, such as high electric field pulses, may cause this by affecting membrane permeability. The ability of plant cells as sources of secondary metabolites can be exploited by combined research in the fields of in vitro culture establishment, metabolite synthesis targeting and development of product recovery technologies.

Daily enormous quantities of waste materials are generated in all villages, towns and cities of India. Incorrect waste management is harmful to human and environmental health. Being unpleasant, it causes many more issues like air pollution, water pollution when dumped into the water or nearby water bodies, it also depletes the ozone layer when burnt, thereby increasing the impact of climate change. It is evident that different types of waste are causing adverse effect on living organisms and environment. Biodegradation is an eco-friendly and cost effective technology as compared to other outdated or traditional methods such as incineration for waste decomposition. Biodegradation is nature's way of reutilizing and recycling wastes, or breaking down organic matter into nutrients that can be used and reused by other organisms. Utilization of potential and effective microorganisms for decomposition of solid waste is very helpful. The effective microbes or their consortium is used for transformation of wastes into nutrient rich compost or manure. The generated compost can be utilized as organic input in different areas of agriculture and horticulture. In this review, we have presented importance of solid waste management by application of effective microorganisms. Biodegradation or microbial decomposition of wastes will result in nutrient rich organic compost. With this knowledge unplanned and improper dumping of wastes can be addressed and proper utilization of decomposed wastes can be carried out

Nickel (Ni) is the 24th most abundant element in the earth’s crust comprising about 3% of the composition of the earth. It is the 5th most abundant element by weight after iron oxygen magnesium and silicon. It is a member of the transition series and belongs to group VIII B of the periodic table along with iron, cobalt, palladium, platinum and five other elements. Nickel is a naturally occurring element that can exist in various mineral forms. As a member of the transition metal series it is resistant to corrosion by air water and alkali but dissolves readily in dilute oxidizing acids. Natural nickel is a mixture of five stable isotopes and nineteen other unstable isotopes are known. Succinate dehydrogenase is the oxidative enzyme which was drastically affected by the action of heavy metals. Succinate dehydrogenase is chosen as a representative of metabolic enzyme. It is a marker enzyme for detecting the presence of TCA cycle in tissues. The aim of the present study was to assess the enzyme succinate dehydrogenase activities in gill liver kidney brain and muscle of the air breathing fish Channa gachua exposed to sub lethal concentration of nickel chloride 1/5th (high) 1/10th (medium) and 1/15th (low) of the 96 hour of LC 50 values for the period of 15, 30 and 45 days. The fish exposed to nickel chloride showed the decrease of enzyme succinate dehydrogenase activities for 15, 30 and 45 days in gills liver kidney, brain and muscles. However no information is on record concerning the three different sub lethal concentration of heavy metal nickel chloride on the enzyme succinate dehydrogenase of the fish Channa gachua. The objective of the work was to observe the effect of nickel on succinate dehydrogenase activities in gills liver and kidney of an air breathing fish Channa gachua.

Phytoremediation is an ecofriendly, effiicient and cost effective technique where the plants are used as an agents to clean environment. The usage of plants helps to extract, sequester, and/or detoxify pollutants through biological processes. Duo to the various unbridled anthropogenic actions like Mining operations, industrial production and domestic and agricultural use of metal and metal containing compound have resulted in the enormous release of toxic heavy metals into the environment. Being toxic, these heavy metals have posed a huge threat to the biodiversity on the surface of earth. So Phytoremediation being the environmentally sound remediation technique could be used as a tool at contaminated sites for the eco-restoration purpose.

Studies were conducted on the changes occurring in the gonadosomatic index (GSI) and hepatosomatic index (HSI) of Schizothorax niger in Dal lake, Jammu and Kashmir from March 2018 to February 2019. This study was aimed to predict fluctuations in GSI and HSI and to correlate them with their breeding period. A total of 120 fish specimens taken were within the range of 24 cm to 43 cm in total length and weight ranging from 115 g to 510 g. During the experimental period, the mean gonadosomatic indices in fish exhibited remarkable variation throughout reproductive cycle. Maximum gonadosomatic index (15.50 ± 0.75%) and minimum hepatosomatic index (1.87 ± 0.05%) were observed in the month of March indicating peak spawning period for Schizothorax niger. A significant inverse relationship between GSI and HSI was recorded. The single peak in gonadosomatic index during spawning phase (March) reflected that the fish is a spring spawner and an annual breeder. It was concluded that by knowing the accurate breeding season of the fish we can protect this declining species in natural water bodies by artificial breeding which ultimately leads to population enrichment in natural environment and thus forms a tool for the development and proper management of Schizothorax niger fishery in Kashmir

The interaction of soil with other entities such as atmosphere, water or even plants and animals, has been significantly affected due to human stewardship. Agricultural production, design of drainage and irrigation as well as the construction of structures, depend on various properties of soil such as bulk density, specific gravity, water holding capacity, porosity, electrical conductivity, heat capacity, temperature, alkalinity, organic matter content etc. Soils are foundational to many essential ecosystems besides providing the food, energy and water. Soil degradation is therefore an issue of huge urgency to humanity to sustainably meet the needs of the rising world population, estimated to reach 9 billion by 2050, as per the world population prospects, WPP highlights of 2019. In this context, Soil Physics has been making great contribution to sustainable world development by way of soil protecting measures, since its establishment as a scientific discipline in the early 20th century. This also requires scientists across various disciplines to collaborate, to obtain the desired results.

Biological complexity emerges from interactions between genomes and their environments, which have been dissected by recent conceptual and technical advances on both short and long time scales. Phenotypic variation is limited by the internal and external features of species as a result of this genome-environment interaction. Phenotypic plasticity demonstrates how organisms form as a result of the complex interaction between genomes and environmental conditions. Different biological studies have presumed that because of DNA sequence alterations, populations of organisms are adapted to extreme environments due to heritable variations. Besides the evidences, the essential role of genetic polymorphisms, epigenetic mechanisms like chromatin modifications and DNA methylation can impact ecologically essential traits even if genetic variation is lacking. To full fill such research gap requires the utilization of integrative approaches to comprehend processes at several stages of organizations from ecosystems to genes eventually giving rise to the science of ecological epigenetics.