Search Results (17)

Galium odoratum (L.) Scop., commonly known as sweet woodruff, is a perennial European woodland herb traditionally used as a medicinal and aromatic plant. Its characteristic sweet, hay-like scent is mainly linked to coumarin, which is formed from glycosidically bound melilotoside precursors during wilting and drying. However, the phytochemistry of G. odoratum extends beyond coumarin. The species also contains iridoid glycosides, coumarin-related melilotosides, caffeoylquinic acids, flavonoids, and volatile constituents. This review summarizes current knowledge on traditional use, phytochemical constituents, metabolite dynamics, biological and ecological relevance, toxicology, and potential applications. Seasonal variation, organ-specific differences, post-harvest metabolism, and differences in analytical methodology affect analytical interpretation of the available data. Reported biological activities are mainly based on isolated constituents, in vitro studies, animal models, or non-standardized extracts, and no convincing clinical evidence is available for defined G. odoratum preparations. Potential applications require standardized plant material, controlled processing, sustainable sourcing, and safety assessment, while the valorization of processing residues may provide an additional route toward more resource-efficient utilization of the species. Overall, G. odoratum should be regarded as a chemically diverse species rather than merely as a source of coumarin aroma. Full article

In recent years, frequent open biomass burning (OBB) activities such as agricultural residue burning and forest fires have led to severe air pollution and carbon emissions across South and Southeast Asia (SSEA). We selected this area as our study area and divided it into two sub-regions based on climate characteristics and geographical location: the South Asian Subcontinent (SEAS), which includes India, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, etc., and Equatorial Asia (EQAS), which includes Indonesia, Malaysia, etc. However, existing methods—primarily emission inventories relying on burned area, fuel load, and emission factors—often lack accuracy and temporal resolution for capturing fire dynamics. Therefore, in this study, we employed high-resolution fire point data from China’s Feng Yun-4A (FY-4A) geostationary satellite and the Fire Radiative Power (FRP) method to construct a daily OBB emission inventory at a 5 km resolution in this region for 2020–2022. The results show that the average annual emissions of carbon (C), carbon dioxide (CO₂), carbon monoxide (CO), methane (CH₄), non-methane organic gases (NMOGs), hydrogen (H₂), nitrogen oxide (NO_X), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), fine particulate matter (PM_2.5), total particulate matter (TPM), total particulate carbon (TPC), organic carbon (OC), black carbon (BC), ammonia (NH₃), nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHCs), and particulate matter ≤ 10 μm (PM₁₀) are 178.39, 598.10, 33.11, 1.44, 4.77, 0.81, 1.02, 0.28, 3.47, 5.58, 2.29, 2.34, 0.24, 0.58, 0.43, 0.99, 1.87, and 3.84 Tg/a, respectively. Taking C emission as an example, 90% of SSEA’s emissions come from SEAS, especially concentrated in Laos and western Thailand. Due to the La Niña climate anomaly in 2021, emissions surged, while EQAS showed continuous annual growth at 16.7%. Forest and woodland fires were the dominant sources, accounting for over 85% of total emissions. Compared with datasets such as the Global Fire Emissions Database (GFED) and the Global Fire Assimilation System (GFAS), FY-4A showed stronger sensitivity and regional adaptability, especially in SEAS. This work provides a robust dataset for carbon source identification, air quality modeling, and regional pollution control strategies. Full article

Limited phytodiversity and regeneration rates occur in some of the southern Brazilian formations known as the Myrtacean Woodlands. Data on phytotoxicity, chemical composition, and allelopathic potential of Myrciaria cuspidata O. Berg, a dominant species in such woodlands, is missing. In this study, both the chemical composition and phytotoxic activity of an aqueous extract (AE) from M. cuspidata leaves were investigated. Target plants were the model species Lactuca sativa L. and the weed Bidens pilosa L. Germination rates, seedling growth, and phenotypic responses of target species were assessed following AE application to determine the inhibitory capacity of M. cuspidata leaf extract. Germination of L. sativa was reduced and delayed in the presence of AE. Strong inhibition of germination was recorded in B. pilosa achenes under the same treatment. Pre-germinated seedlings of L. sativa were essentially not affected by AE, whereas those of the weed showed some negative developmental responses. Overall, inhibitory responses were consistent both in vitro and in soil substrate. Detrimental effects were most apparent in roots and included tip darkening and growth anomalies often preceded by loss of mitochondrial viability. AE proved rich in phytotoxic phenolic compounds including quercetin, gallic and tannic acid. To sum up, AE shows potential as an environmentally friendly pre-emergence bioherbicide of low residual effect and minor environmental impact. Experimental data in laboratory conditions were consistent with potential allelopathic activity of this tree, as inferred from field observations of dominance in the Myrtaceae Woodlands. Full article

The Cerrado has high plant and vertebrate diversity and is an important biome for conserving species and provisioning ecosystem services. Volume equations in this biome are scarce because of their size and physiognomic diversity. This study was conducted to develop specific volumetric models for the phytophysiognomies Gallery Forest, Dry Forest, Forest Savannah, and Savannah Woodland, a generic model and a model for Cerrado forest formation. Twelve 10 m × 10 m (100 m²) (National Forest Inventory) plots were used for each phytophysiognomy at different sites (regions) of the Federal District (FD) where trees had a diameter at breast height (DBH; 1.30 m) ≥5 cm in forest formations and a diameter at base height (Db; 0.30 m) ≥5 cm in savanna formations. Their diameters and heights were measured, they were cut and cubed, and the volume of each tree was obtained according to the Smalian methodology. Linear and nonlinear models were adjusted. Criteria for the selection of models were determined using correlation coefficients, the standard error of the estimates, and a graphical analysis of the residues. They were later validated by the chi-square test. The resultant models indicated that fit by specific phytophysiognomy was ideal; however, the generic and forest formation models exhibited similar performance to specific models and could be used in extensive areas of the Cerrado, where they represent a high potential for generalization. To further increase our understanding, similar research is recommended for the development of specific and generic models of the total volume in Cerrado areas. Full article

In the context of global climate change, many studies have focused on the interannual vegetation variation trends and their response to precipitation and temperature, but ignored the effects of seasonal variability. This study explored the relationship between normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and seasonal climate elements in the Wuliangsu Lake Basin area from 1990 to 2020, and quantified the impacts of human activities on vegetation dynamics. We used Landsat series data to analyze the spatial and temporal variation of the NDVI using the trend analysis method, the Theil–Sen median, the Mann–Kendall test, and the Hurst index. Then, we used meteorological data and land use data to quantify the effects of human activities using residual analysis, and correlation methods to determine the driving forces of NDVI variations. The results showed that the NDVI changes presented obvious regional characteristics, with a decreasing trend from southeast to northwest in Wuliangsu Lake Basin. Due to global warming, the start of the growing season (SOS) is 4.3 days (2001 to 2010) and 6.8 days (2011 to 2020) earlier compared with 1990 to 2000. The end of the season (EOS) is advanced by 3.6 days (2001 to 2010), and delayed by 8.9 days (2011 to 2020). Seasonal (spring, summer, autumn, and winter) NDVIs with precipitation and temperature show spatial heterogeneity. Further, changes in grasslands and woodlands were vulnerable to climate change and human activities. Since the beginning of the 21st century, human activity was the driving force for vegetation improvement in the Dengkou, west-central, north and southwest regions, where ecological instability is weak. This finding can provide a theoretical basis for the implementation of the same type of ecological restoration projects and the construction of ecological civilization, and contribute to the regional green and sustainable development. Full article

Numerous deep learning techniques have been explored in pursuit of achieving precise road segmentation; nonetheless, this task continues to present a significant challenge. Exposing shadows and the obstruction of objects are the most important difficulties associated with road segmentation using optical image data alone. By incorporating additional data sources, such as LiDAR data, the accuracy of road segmentation can be improved in areas where optical images are insufficient to segment roads properly. The missing information in spectral data due to the object blockage and shadow effect can be compensated by the integration of 2D and 3D information. This study proposes a feature-wise fusion strategy of optical images and point clouds to enhance the road segmentation performance of a deep learning model. For this purpose, high-resolution satellite images and airborne LiDAR point cloud collected over Florida, USA, were used. Eigenvalue-based and geometric 3D property-based features were calculated based on the LiDAR data. These optical images and LiDAR-based features were used together to train, end-to-end, a deep residual U-Net architecture. In this strategy, the high-level features generated from optical images were concatenated with the LiDAR-based features before the final convolution layer. The consistency of the proposed strategy was evaluated using ResNet backbones with a different number of layers. According to the obtained results, the proposed fusion strategy improved the prediction capacity of the U-Net models with different ResNet backbones. Regardless of the backbone, all models showed enhancement in prediction statistics by 1% to 5%. The combination of optical images and LiDAR point cloud in the deep learning model has increased the prediction performance and provided the integrity of road geometry in woodland and shadowed areas. Full article

Southern Africa experiences a great number of wildfires, but the dependence on low-resolution products to detect and quantify fires means both that there is a time lag and that many small fire events are never identified. This is particularly relevant in miombo woodlands, where fires are frequent and predominantly small. We developed a cutting-edge deep-learning-based approach that uses freely available Sentinel-2 data for near-real-time, high-resolution fire detection in Mozambique. The importance of Sentinel-2 main bands and their derivatives was evaluated using TreeNet, and the top five variables were selected to create three training datasets. We designed a UNet architecture, including contraction and expansion paths and a bridge between them with several layers and functions. We then added attention gate units (AUNet) and residual blocks and attention gate units (RAUNet) to the UNet architecture. We trained the three models with the three datasets. The efficiency of all three models was high (intersection over union (IoU) > 0.85) and increased with more variables. This is the first time an RAUNet architecture has been used to detect fire events, and it performed better than the UNet and AUNet models—especially for detecting small fires. The RAUNet model with five variables had IoU = 0.9238 and overall accuracy = 0.985. We suggest that others test the RAUNet model with large datasets from different regions and other satellites so that it may be applied more broadly to improve the detection of wildfires. Full article

Protein phosphatase 2C (PP2C) is a negative regulator of serine/threonine residue protein phosphatase and plays an important role in abscisic acid (ABA) and abiotic-stress-mediated signaling pathways in plants. The genome complexity of woodland strawberry and pineapple strawberry is different due to the difference in chromosome ploidy. This study conducted a genome-wide investigation of the FvPP2C (Fragaria vesca) and FaPP2C (Fragaria ananassa) gene family. Fifty-six FvPP2C genes and 228 FaPP2C genes were identified from the woodland strawberry and pineapple strawberry genomes, respectively. FvPP2Cs were distributed on seven chromosomes, and FaPP2Cs were distributed on 28 chromosomes. The size of the FaPP2C gene family was significantly different from that of the FvPP2C gene family, but both FaPP2Cs and FvPP2Cs were localized in the nucleus, cytoplasm, and chloroplast. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that 56 FvPP2Cs and 228 FaPP2Cs could be divided into 11 subfamilies. Collinearity analysis showed that both FvPP2Cs and FaPP2Cs had fragment duplication, and the whole genome duplication was the main cause of PP2C gene abundance in pineapple strawberry. FvPP2Cs mainly underwent purification selection, and there were both purification selection and positive selection effects in the evolution of FaPP2Cs. Cis-acting element analysis found that the PP2C family genes of woodland and pineapple strawberries mainly contained light responsive elements, hormone responsive elements, defense and stress responsive elements, and growth and development-related elements. The results of quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) showed that the FvPP2C genes showed different expression patterns under ABA, salt, and drought treatment. The expression level of FvPP2C18 was upregulated after stress treatment, which may play a positive regulatory role in ABA signaling and abiotic stress response mechanisms. This study lays a foundation for further investigation on the function of the PP2C gene family. Full article

The use of synthetic molecules to achieve specific goals is steadily increasing in the environment, and these molecules adversely impact human health and ecosystem services. Considering the adverse effects, a better understanding of how these molecules behave in the environment and their associated risks is necessary to keep their use acceptably limited. To meet the demands of farmers and combat weed problems, woodlands and farmlands are sprayed with agrochemicals, primarily glyphosate-based herbicides. Farmers increasingly embrace these herbicides containing glyphosate. Glyphosate and aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA), a key metabolite of glyphosate, have been reported as toxicological concerns when they become more prevalent in the food chain. The chemical glyphosate has been linked to various health issues in humans and other living organisms, including endocrine disruption, reproductive issues, tumours, non-Hodgkin lymphomas, and liver, heart, and blood problems. Therefore, the current review aims to compile data on glyphosate-based herbicide use in the environment, potential risks to human and ecological health, and various maximum residual limits for crops as suggested by international organizations. As a result, regulatory agencies can advise glyphosate users on safe usage practices and synthesize herbicides more efficiently. Full article

House dust mite (HDM) is a globally ubiquitous domestic cause of allergic diseases. There is a pressing demand to discover efficient, harmless, and eco-friendly natural extracts to inhibit HDM allergens that are more likely to trigger allergies and challenging to be prevented entirely. This study, therefore, is aimed at assessing the inhibition of the allergenicity of major HDM allergen Der f 2 by todomatsu oil extracted from residues of Abies Sachalinensis. The inhibition was investigated experimentally (using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), surface plasmon resonance (SPR), and sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE)) and in silico using molecular docking. The results showed that todomatsu oil inhibits the allergenicity of Der f 2 by reducing its amount instead of the IgG binding capacity of a single protein. Moreover, the compounds in todomatsu oil bind to Der f 2 via alkyl hydrophobic interactions. Notably, most compounds interact with the hydrophobic amino acids of Der f 2, and seven substances interact with CYS27. Contrarily, the principal compounds fail to attach to the amino acids forming the IgG epitope in Der f 2. Interestingly, chemical components with the lowest relative percentages in todomatsu oil show high-affinity values on Der f 2, especially β-maaliene (−8.0 kcal/mol). In conclusion, todomatsu oil has been proven in vitro as a potential effective public health strategy to inhibit the allergenicity of Der f 2. Full article

Many strategies have been put forward to seek green and low-carbon development, some of which are achieved through land use and cover change (LUCC). A series of land management policies related to LUCC and corresponding changes in carbon dynamics were released with the implementation of the Ecological Conservation Pilot Zone Program (ECPZP) in China. We explored the spatiotemporal dynamics of LUCC and carbon storage in the first ECPZP implementation region (Fujian province) at the time before and after ECPZP implementation using a simplified carbon pools model and quantified the relative impacts of human activities and climate change on net primary productivity (NPP) employing residual analysis. This can fill the gap of land use and vegetation changes and the corresponding carbon dynamics in the ECPZP region and can serve as a reference for future land management policy revisions and ECPZP project extensions. The results showed that: (1) In 1990–2020, woodland, cultivated land, and grassland were the leading land use type in Fujian province. The area of LUCC was 11,707.75 km², and it was predominantly caused by the conversion from cultivated land to built-up land, and the interconversion between woodland and grassland. (2) An increase of 9.74 Tg in carbon storage was mainly caused by vegetation conversion from 1990 to 2020. (3) The statistically significant increased area of climate change-induced NPP was 2.3% primarily in the northwest, but the decreased area of it statistically significantly was only 0.1%. Correspondingly, the increased area of statistically significant human activity-induced NPP was 8.7% primarily in the southeast, but the decreased area of statistically significance was 6.5%, mostly in the central region. In addition, the statistically significant areas of NPP caused by the combination of human activities and climate change differed by 1.8%. To sum up, ECPZP makes full use of the vertical mountain landscape and property right reform to effectively secure ecological space and local income. Moreover, urbanization-related policies are an essential impetus for LUCC and carbon balance. The impact of other built-up land expansion on environmental change needs to be paid particular attention to. Moreover, land-use activities in the centre of the study region that are not conducive to NPP growth should be judiciously assessed in the future. Full article

Land use change could significantly affect soil organic carbon (SOC) and other soil chemical properties. However, the responses of soil labile C fractions at different soil depths to land-use change are not still clear. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of paddy field conversion on woodlands or corn fields on total soil organic C (TOC) and its labile C fractions including particulate organic C (POC), microbial biomass C (MBC), and potassium permanganate-oxidizable C (KMnO₄–C) along a 0–100 cm soil profile. Our results indicate that soil TOC concentrations increased by 3.88 g kg⁻¹ and 3.47 g kg⁻¹ in the 0–5 cm soil layer and 5.33 g kg⁻¹ and 4.68 g kg⁻¹ in the 5–20 cm soil layer during 13 years after the conversion from paddy fields to woodlands and corn fields, respectively. In the 20–40 cm soil layer, the woodlands had the highest TOC concentration (12.3 g kg⁻¹), which was 5.13 g kg⁻¹ and 3.5 g kg⁻¹ higher than that of the paddy and corn fields, respectively. The increase in TOC was probably due to the absence of soil disturbance and greater root residue input into the woodland soil. In corn fields, pig manure addition contributed to the increase in soil organic C concentrations. In addition, the proportion of soil KMnO₄–C increased after conversion from paddy fields to woodlands or corn fields in the 0–40 cm soil layer, ranging from 39.9–56.6% for the woodlands and 24.6–32.9% for the corn fields. The soil POC content was significantly higher in woodland and corn field soils than in paddy field soils at lower soil depths (5–40 cm). However, there were no differences in MBC contents in the whole soil profile between the woodlands and paddy fields. The KMnO₄–C and MBC was the most important factor affecting the CMI values through the whole 0–100 cm soil profile. Overall, converting paddy fields to woodlands or corn fields increased the TOC and labile C fractions in the 0–40 cm soil layer. Future studies should focus on the response of the deeper soil C pool to land-use change. Full article

Restoring anthropogenic footprints to pre-disturbance conditions or minimizing their long-term impacts is an important goal in conservation. Many footprints, particularly if left alone, have wide-ranging effects on biodiversity. In Canada, energy exploration footprints result in forest dissection and fragmentation contributing to declines in woodland caribou. Developing cost effective strategies to restore forests and thus conserving the woodland caribou habitat is a conservation priority. In this study, we compared the effects of wildfire and local variation in the amount of residual woody debris on natural regeneration in jack pine on exploratory well pads in Alberta’s boreal forest. Specifically, we investigated how footprint size, fire severity (overstory tree mortality), ground cover of fine and coarse woody debris, and adjacent stand characteristics (i.e., height, age, and cover), affected tree regeneration densities and height using negative binomial count and linear models (Gaussian), respectively. Regeneration density was 30% higher on exploratory well pads than adjacent forests, increased linearly with fire severity on the exploratory well pads (2.2% per 1% increase in fire severity), but non-linearly in adjacent forests (peaking at 51,000 stems/ha at 72% fire severity), and decreased with amount of woody debris on exploratory well pads (2.7% per 1% increase in woody debris cover). The height of regenerating trees on exploratory well pads decreased with fire severity (0.56 cm per 1% increase in fire severity) and was non-linearly related to coarse woody debris (peaking at 286 cm at 9.4% coarse woody debris cover). Heights of 3 and 5 m on exploratory well pads were predicted by 13- and 21-years post-fire, respectively. Our results demonstrate that wildfires can stimulate natural recovery of fire-adapted species, such as jack pine, on disturbances as large as exploratory well pads (500–1330 m²) and that the type and amount of woody debris affects these patterns. Full article

Increased interest in ecosystem recovery and resilience has been driven by concerns over global change-induced shifts in forest disturbance regimes. In frequent-fire forests, catastrophic wind disturbances modify vegetation-fuels-fire feedbacks, and these alterations may shift species composition and stand structure to alternative states relative to pre-disturbance conditions. We established permanent inventory plots in a catastrophically wind-disturbed and fire-maintained Pinus palustris woodland in the Alabama Fall Line Hills to examine ecosystem recovery and model the successional and developmental trajectory of the stand through age 50 years. We found that sapling height was best explained by species. Species with the greatest mean heights likely utilized different regeneration mechanisms. The simulation model projected that at age 50 years, the stand would transition to be mixedwood and dominated by Quercus species, Pinus taeda, and P. palustris. The projected successional pathway is likely a function of residual stems that survived the catastrophic wind disturbance and modification of vegetation-fuels-fire feedbacks. Although silvicultural interventions will be required for this system to exhibit pre-disturbance species composition and structure, we contend that the ecosystem was still resilient to the catastrophic disturbance because similar silvicultural treatments were required to create and maintain the P. palustris woodland prior to the disturbance event. Full article

Hydrothermal gasification (HTG) experiments were carried out to extract hydrogen from biomass. Although extensive research has been conducted on hydrogen production with HTG, limited research exists on the use of biochar as a raw material. In this study, woodland residues (wood chip) and biochar from wood-chip pyrolysis were used in HTG treatment to generate hydrogen. This research investigated the effect of temperature (300–425 °C) and biomass/water (0.5–10) ratio on gas composition. A higher temperature promoted hydrogen production because the water–gas shift reaction and steam-reforming reaction were promoted with an increase in temperature. The methane concentration was related positively to temperature because of the methanation and hydrogenation reactions. A lower biomass/water ratio promoted hydrogen production but suppressed carbon-monoxide production. Most reactions that produce hydrogen consume water, but water also affects the water–gas shift reaction balance, which decreases the carbon-monoxide concentration. By focusing on the practical application of HTG, we attempted biochar treatment by pyrolysis (temperature of heating part: 700 °C), and syngas was obtained from hydrothermal treatment above 425 °C. Full article