Context
The assessment of land-use impacts on biodiversity is one of the central themes of landscape ecology and conservation biology. However, due to the complexity of biodiversity, it is impossible to obtain complete information about the diversity of all species even for small areas, necessitating the selection of individual species or assemblages thereof as species surrogate. In parts of the world where taxonomic expertise is lacking, species identification has hindered progress in biodiversity conservation, and the only practical, relatively-accurate option, is the use of taxonomic minimalism.Objective
We carried out a rapid biodiversity assessment based on three surrogates—land-use (driver-surrogate), terrestrial arthropods (species-surrogate) and morphospecies (taxonomic-surrogate)—to determine the impacts of land-use on biodiversity of the Western Region (Ghana), an area covering ~4 % of the West African biodiversity hotspot.Method
We used diversity profiles to visualize the distribution of a total of 8848 arthropod individuals over seven land-use types which define the complete heterogeneity of the landscape.Results
Here, we present both sample and asymptotic diversity profiles of arthropod morphospecies for each land-use type and the potential of each land-use type for conserving arthropods.Conclusions
We conclude that (1) the morphospecies approach is useful for detecting differences in species diversity of land-use types; (2) the concept of asymptotic diversity may not be necessary for land-use based biodiversity comparison; and (3) maximum diversity profiles are useful for determining the land-use conservation values in cases where pristine areas are not available.Humic substances, which are integral components of total organic carbon (TOC), influence soil quality. The study aimed to investigate whether humic and non-humic fractions exhibit early, consistent, and measurable changes and affect TOC sensitivity and storage in a tropical sandy loam soils amended with corn cob biochar.
Materials and methodsThere were four treatments with four replicates established in a randomized complete block design. Composite soil samples were taken from plots without biochar (CT), from plots incorporated with 15 t biochar ha?1 (BC-15), and 30 t biochar ha?1 without or with phosphate fertilizer (BC-30 and BC-30+P). The TOC, and humin, humic acid (HA), and fulvic acid (HA) fractions of soil organic carbon were determined for each treatment. The optical densities (400–700 nm) were measured on the soil-free extracts by spectrophotometry; the densities measured at 465 and 665 nm were used to calculate the E465/E665 ratios.
Results and discussionThe BC-30 and BC-30+P plots recorded the highest TOC, humin, humic acid (HA), and fulvic acid (FA) contents with respect to the lowest in the CT. The total exchangeable carbon stratification was significantly higher in all the biochar-treated plots relative to the CT. Spectral analysis showed higher values of E465/E665 (5.02 and 5.15) in the CT and BC-15-treated soils, respectively, compared with the BC-30 and BC-30+P-amended soils with E465/E665 ratios of 2.76 and 2.98, respectively.
ConclusionsCorn cob biochar applied to a tropical sandy loam:
? increased the concentrations of HA and FA and led to increased stratification of TOC, with a stronger effect on HA compared with FA;
? significantly lowered E465/E665 at the high biochar application rate of 30 t ha?1, implying the dominance of high molecular weight humic acid-like substances, and increased degree of aromaticity of the TOC.
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