"I Am Root"

Amanda sarinana   Mosquitoes are found all throughout the world and may adapt to a wide variety of environmental factors. Mosquito distribution and abundance, which are required hosts for many infectious diseases, are principally influenced by the availability and quality of larval environments. Researchers carried out a four-month mosquito survey across ten inhabited islands in the Lakshadweep archipelago in order to better understand the dynamics and productivity of larval homes in changing island settings. With the help of fine-resolution larval habitat mapping, researchers identified 7890 mosquitoes from 13 species and 7 genera. Researchers conducted thorough surveys on eleven inhabited islands (Agatti, Kavaratti, Chetlat, Kalpeni, Amini, Kiltan, Kadmath, Androth, Bitra, and Minicoy) from October 2019 to  January 2020 for larval habitat, species diversity, and distribution . Their main objective was to calculate how much each mosquito species used its respective niche and ...

By: Amanda Guerra Image 1. The image displays four different versions of wind currents transforming the desert dunes. The arrows on each example indicate the wind blowing direction to change the desert dunes. (Bass, 2022).  This article provides information on the investigation of Desert Dunes and the impact of the wind regimes. The four major wind regimes are called Star, Barchan, Linear Self, and Transverse Crescentic. The most common wind regime is Barchan. The researchers gathered satellite images to gather data on the effects wind erosion has on the future of Earth. These wind regimes have a major impact on soil productivity and ecological richness (Bass, 2022). In addition, this is caused by climate change. The increase in temperature and lack of rain allows the sand to be easily maneuvered. The changing of the wind climate has produced overgrazing on the grasslands. Sand dunes provide great help to species that live near the coastal regions. The sand acts like a barrier to p...

 By: Mary Barrera Transparency of edible food packaging: (A) gelatin film, (B) papaya-gelatin film, (C) soy protein papaya gelatin film (Ashfaq et al., 2022).    Most of the food packaging used in markets contain materials that are nonbiodegradable to the environment and take years to be decomposed. This leads to the question in research about if there are alternative methods in packaging that would ultimately reduce generating plastic waste. To relieve this issue, packaging film was made using materials commonly found in households such as gelatin, soy protein, corn starch, and papaya - biodegradable and edible. The process of preparing the packaging film took three steps, but the third step was distinct because glycerin was used as substitute of plasticizer and added to each type of film (gelatin, papaya-gelatin, and soy protein papaya gelatin as shown in the figure above). FT-IR was used to analyze the physiochemical properties that make them suitable to replace tradit...

    How many pairs of jeans do you own? Many? Imagine your discarded jeans aiding in the solution to the creation of a green, sustainable system for recovering polyester and cotton fibers from textile waste.       In this research article, the waste jeans are seen with the potential to develop into a sustainable source of raw cotton to accomplish various processes. The first stage of the process involved leaching nitric acid to remove textile colors from the jeans, then activated carbon to regenerate the used acid. Next, cotton and polyester were broken down and separated using a green switchable hydrophilicity solvent. CO2 was added to extract the polyester and regenerate the solvent. The solidified polyester was then collected by filtration and the solvent's form was changed back.       What I found most interesting about this article is how jeans came to be the main item of retrieval for the study, that's because it consumes more than...

Even though there are increasing research based on ocean plastic pollution over the past decade, there seems to be little that we known about our current knowledge of how floating plastic debris is accumulating in subtropical oceanic gyres and how they may harm the surface associated pelagic community that is most known as neuston. By removing the floating plastic debris from the surface, we can minimize different effects of the pollution that can occur in a neuston. The results show that the dominant species of neuston such as pteropods, isopods, heteropods, and crabs show low atmospheric attributes which can be associated with the fitness benefit such as increased surface area. The research found strategies that can help remove the floating plastic from the ocean and reducing the negative effects of the neuston population.                                        ...

  Green roof substrates have become increasingly well-known within the environmentalist community as a concept that describes many benefits. These benefits include runoff volume control (usually during storms), minimizing the chance of having a heat island effect, lowering noise, reducing building energy use, and allowing for solar panels to perform better. A cost would include frequent rock and soil erosion. The materials that were used in these experiments included crushed brick, sand, coco-peat, expanded perlite, and exfoliated vermiculite, which created the green roof substrate. The methods included substrate analysis, which was done by measuring the green roof substrate components (1g of the components as well as 100mL of DI water in a shaker for 24 hours and then filtered through a 0.45 μm membrane filter). With the plant growth experiments, plant cuttings of P. grandiflora were each put into 175mm pots that each contained a green roof substrate mix. The plants were watered...

  What is interesting about this article is that an opportunity appeared during the pandemic of covid-19 which has become a global disturbance on the conservation land uses and being able to learn from the responses to the crisis that could enable more resilient conservation systems. During 2020 most of the protected land that was lost about 75% revenues, while on the other hand agricultural farms lost less than 10% of revenues. The ranches with more diverse activities, especially with mixed wildlife agriculture systems. The activities are shifting from those that are heavily impacted being international ecotourism, and trophy hunting to the ones that are less affecting such as wildlife meat and livestock. Private and community wildlife ranches and mixed wildlife-agricultural ranches in Southern and Eastern Africa grants one such case study. Although these findings are being put to the test in some contexts, they enable innovation in terms of income-generating activities while also...

Process of the fabrication of aquaplastic made from engineered microbial biofilms  As it is known, petrochemical-based plastics play a huge role in the contamination of the planet. Taking into consideration that they are not biodegradable, the negative impact that they have on the ecosystem is irreversible. For this reason, the demand for the development and manufacturing of biodegradable bioplastics has increased in the recent years. A specific bioplastic that has been developed is aquaplastic, which is made using genetically modified Escherichia coli to ultimately produce protein-based hydrogels. Aquaplastic is biofilmed-based and can be molded to form three-dimensional figures with the use of water. The two types of aquaplastic are biofilm aquagels, which actually contain bacterial cells and curly aquagels, which are inert gels that do not contain any cells. Using biofilm aquagels, all types of shapes can be made and twisted without cracking or breaking the material. The biodeg...

By: Mia Guerrero October 28, 2022 Figure 1: Shows the representation of how much product and nutrients you get from a plant-based meal. Livestock pollution production is twice as much as plant production, leading to the industrial  food system to increase climate change and degradation . As for the beef replacement, plant-based food has shown to be more environmentally   sustainable , less emissions  and zero to little waste. Comparing to livestock food and plant-based protein food where there appears to have consequential increase in the climate and greenhouse gas  (McCarty & Faber, 2022) . In this study, nudging is used to push buyers into more sustainable products, such beef replacements or plant-based food.  The article shows how nudging can cause a significant decrease to the consumption of livestock and an increase in plant-based options.  According to McCarty and Faber, the study can show a behavioral intervention on nudging at a conference ...

 By : Monica Urias 10/28/22 Figure 1. Conceptual diagram summarizing stabilizing and destabilizing interactions between Mn(III,IV)-oxides and organic compounds. Natural elements may have the capacity to influence and regulate ecosystems. Manganese alone is considered as a micronutrient that may diminish growth when present. The concentrations of Carbon on soils can alternate CO2 in the atmosphere and even lead to climate change. Conserving carbon in soils is crucial to keep balanced ecosystems including reduction of erosion, and increasing the ecosystems’ resilience to droughts and floods. In this study, it is considered that Manganese has an essential, but not fully understood, role on soil Carbon storage. Manganese also protects organic matters from microbial degradation.  Information on Manganese in soils is meager due to its low abundance throughout. To be able to characterize the element, the technique of Synchrotron-source X-ray absorption spectroscopy is one of the few ...

 Following accidents, oiling situations come in different concentrations and typically have an impact on wide coastal areas. As a result, this study examined various crude oil concentrations. Eight units of 2500 L each were used for this ten-day experiment. Changes in phytoplankton composition, physicochemical characteristics, and the quantity of culturable bacteria belonging to heterotrophic and hydrocarbonoclastic groups were all monitored. The measurements for temperature, salinity, and nutrient concentration all fell within the previously noted parameters for waters off the Yucatan Peninsula. The findings were consistent with earlier studies at the taxonomic level, which demonstrated the presence of Dinophyceae and Bacillariophyceae in treatments involving oil, where these groups displayed the most significant relationships in co-occurrence networks. Chlorophyceae, in contrast, revealed the central node in the co-occurrence network for the control. The goal of this researc...

  October 28, 2022 By: Kaitlyn Soto Figure 1.The relationships between income level and P surplus and between income level and PUE (Zou, et al. 2022) Phosphorus is a nonrenewable, necessary component for crop growth which is required for feeding the global population. Lack of phosphorous would consequently mean crop and food production would decrease or come to a halt. As the population continuously grows phosphorous is used in higher increments which leads to scarcity concerns. Unfortunately, there is a lack of research on budget, use efficiency, challenges, and their solutions (Zou, et al. 2022). Research in the article shows that lower-income countries will have a more challenging time increasing their phosphorus yield whereas middle- and higher-income countries have an easier time (Zou, et al. 2022). While some countries can increase their phosphorus yield, this leaves a negative tradeoff on the environment. An increase in phosphorous allows for crops to grow and adds food for ...

October 28th, 2022 By: Jose D. De Leon  All across the world, the potato has formed the core of agricultural exports and local foodstuffs for many people and cultures. However, in East Africa, there is an increasing issue with Potato Cyst Nematodes (PCNs), specifically Globadera rostochiensis . These minuscule animals will flourish in the warm and wet soils, and will feast themselves on growing potatoes, breeding in the surrounding soils, and will proliferate throughout the agricultural industries of East Africa. In order to combat this, the pesticide ABM was used to protect potato crops, but the nematodes would be resistant to the pesticide over time. Scientists had theorized possible methods to gradually disseminate the pesticide ABM over time, thereby perpetually preventing nematode infestations, but lacked an effective medium to do so until the lignocellulosic matrix (LCM) found in banana plant fibers was observed. When 21 experiments using the LCM fibers which were loaded with...

Forests can have great amounts of carbon. while there are advantages and disavantages to forestation, there is recent controversies. these controversies include both local and global temperature impacts. deforestation is causing an imbalance in the earths energy causing there to be a change in the atmospheric circulation. In this study we are looking at three different scenarios to figure out whether or not deforestation is the actual cause to the worlds climate change.

  A variety of infectious diseases between humans and wild or domestic animals is defined as Zoonoses; there are four types of disease agents that cause this, the first one being bacteria,viruses, parasites and fungi. The authors argue in this particular article that zoonotic disease emerge from livestock during production, processing and retail environment which in all togetherness it alters the contact rate, population size, and microbial traffic. One of the cases that were studied was the livestock development from Central Asia to the eastern mediterranean basin, the other one being the poultry production in Southeast Asia; both of these cases were being studied by its environmental factors to demography, land pressure, and the imbalances of production which led to an epidemiological circumstance. Slingenbergh, Jan, et al. "Ecological sources of zoonotic diseases."  Revue scientifique et technique-Office international des épizooties  23.2 (2004): 467-484.

 By: Lillian Perez October 28, 2022                                                                       Figure 1: Australian Energy Statistics 2020-2022   Environmental pollution has been a concern for all countries in the past decades, but particularly in Australia due to the excessive burning of non-renewable energy resources, increasing global warming and excessive use of industrial activities. Pollution issues in Australia remain unsolved due to the lack of equipment and lack of attention to the problem. Researchers state that industrialization and non-renewable energy use increases the emission of CO 2 in Australia. Recommendations to reduce these issues have been applied in the past years. Some of these being; green industrialization, reducing the use of non-renewable energy, increasing rene...

 October 28, 2022 By Ricardo Velazquez The management of waste is a pressing issue around the globe. Waste is constantly being produced and put into landfills and open dumps. One of the most prevalent forms of waste, biodegradable waste, is a more direct threat to the environment because it is a direct contributor of greenhouse gases. Along with the harmful gasses the biodegradable waste produces, it can also release toxic compounds and chemicals into soil and water sources. To tackle this issue, scientists looked to the black soldier fly. The black soldier fly is a detritivore, meaning it consumes nonliving biomass; however, the fly only consumes biomass in its larval stage. Scientists saw that the black soldier fly could recycle biomass, so they conducted a study in cattle and poultry slaughterhouses. They ran several tests using, raw and cooked beef blood, raw and cooked beef viscera (internal organs), and finally raw and cooked chicken viscera. The larvae were given the differe...

By: Luis Castillo  Image 1: A diver using an XL Catlin Seaview SVII camera allowing a panoramic 360 ° frame, allowing self navigation for virtual divers  (XL Catlin Seaview Survey, 2015). Ecosystem servicing is an analytical field of environmental science that has come a long way for habitat conservation in efforts to counter the detrimental effects of the anthropogenic era. This research calls for a comprehensive approach encompassing coral reef sustainability, specifically -the reality that social and ecological systems are symbiotic and thus: should be met with an angle that asserts both dynamics for the future existence of coral reef ecosystems. Coral reefs and its service providers, or the ecological units that comprise these ecosystem services (Woodhead et al. 2018), are minimally understood -yet the benefits of these are known to be bountiful. Solar energy dissipation, ocean water nutrient eutrophication,  fishery services, coastal protection from extreme weather e...

 By: Salvador Villarreal Jr. (a) Freshwater ecosystem services flowing between watersheds and cities. (b) Water supply networks between these watersheds and cities (Chung et al., 2021)  As urbanization continues to spread throughout the world, the demand for freshwater resources has only increased and does not seem to be slowing down anytime soon. This high demand has led to issues, such as water shortages and low water quality, around the globe. However, it has been shown that natural infrastructure, which is a system that is managed to yield many benefits for the surrounding environment and people's well-being, reduces negative effects of urban structures that deteriorates freshwater ecosystem services. This study focuses on four specific freshwater ecosystem services: freshwater provision, sediment regulation, flood mitigation, and hydropower reduction. Network analysis was used to study the interrelationship between urban and natural infrastructures  in 2,113 watersh...

 By: Anthony Vasquez Image 1: A green corridor built on an overpass, above a highway, to allow for floral scents to be dispersed with wind to the otherside of highway (Rethinking Poverty, 2021;  Retrieved from https://www.rethinkingpoverty.org.uk/coronavirus/what-would-a-green-recovery-look-like-and-how-do-we-get-there/attachment/siginificance-of-wildlife-corridors/ ).     Among conservation efforts in the 21st century, the most pivotal in combating dwindling biodiversity has to be green corridors. These are pathways made to connect species populations that might otherwise be isolated because of urban infrastructure like buildings or highways. In a study by Wang et al. (2021), these corridors are evaluated as a possible way to conserve pollinator diversity by floral scents in Hong Kong. This was done primarily by a simulation known as ENVI-met, which simulates parameters like infrastructure surfaces, wind flow, and particle dispersion near linear highways. Three scen...