Setting the net lower: A potential low-cost mitigation method to reduce cetacean bycatch in drift gillnet fisheries

1. Bycatch is the most significant threat to marine megafauna (sea turtles, marine mammals, elasmobranchs, seabirds) worldwide, and the leading cause of the decline of several cetacean species. The bycatch issue in the Indian Ocean is poorly understood, but high bycatch levels in gillnet fisheries have been documented for the past two decades, in both small-scale and semi-industrial fisheries. Unfortunately, methods to reduce bycatch are often unavailable, financially non-viable or socially unacceptable to fishermen.
2. Using a network of trained boat captains in the tuna drift gillnet fishery in the Arabian Sea, targeted catch and bycatch data were collected from 2013 to 2017 off the coast of Pakistan (northern Indian Ocean). Two fishing methods using multifilament gillnets were used: surface deployment and subsurface deployment (i.e. headline of net set below 2 m depth).
3. Predicted catch rates for targeted species did not differ significantly between the two fishing practices, although a drop in tuna (6.2%) and tuna-like (10.9%) species captures was recorded in subsurface sets. The probability of cetacean bycatch, however, was 78.5% lower in subsurface than in surface sets.
4. Cetacean bycatch in tuna drift gillnet fisheries has the potential to be significantly reduced at a relatively low cost for fishers. However, further research with an appropriate sampling design and a large sample size is required to confirm the efficacy of the proposed mitigation method. The acceptability and adoption of subsurface setting by fishers also needs to be further investigated. Despite some limitations, this preliminary study also highlights the importance of crew-based observer data as an alternative source of data when observers cannot be deployed on fishing vessels.

     

Allelopathic Potential of Soliva sessilis Ruiz & Pav. on Wheat

Soliva sessilis (Burweed) is a winter annual weed found in wheat crop of Pakistan. It is thought to have an allelopathic effect on wheat crop. In this regard, an experiment was conducted in 2019 in the department of Weed Science and Botany at the University of Agriculture Peshawar, to assess the allelopathic potential of S. sessilis on various wheat varieties grown in Peshawar, Pakistan. Physiologically matured roots and leaves of S. sessilis were dried, ground and stored. Three common wheat varieties were selected for the research including Atta Habib, Pirsabaq-15, and Shahkar-13. The treatments of the experiment comprised of the aqueous extracts of the roots and leaves of S. sessilis, hot water extracts, methanol extracts, litter, and mulches. A mass of 5?g of S. sessilis was taken for the different extracts for 24?h, however, the methanol extract was kept for 48?h. The effect of the treatments was highly significant on wheat seed germination, radicle length, plumule length, fresh biomass as well as dry biomasses of the three tested wheat varieties. The variety Atta Habib was discovered as the most susceptible variety to the treatments of aqueous extracts, hot water extracts, and leaves’ litter. In contrary, the variety Pirsabaq-15 exhibited a remarkable increase in the various data collection parameters. The leaves of S. sessilis were observed more toxic as compared to the roots. The mulch of S. sessilis indicated stimulatory effect on the wheat varieties. For the interaction effect between treatments and varieties, the leaves and roots aqueous extract and their litter showed inhibitory effect. In conclusion, the leaves and roots of S. sessilis are potentiality allelopathic to wheat crop plants and further study is needed to assess the types of these allelochemicals present in the leaves and roots of the weed.

     

Influence of Nursery Management and Seedling Age on Growth and Economic Performance of Fine Rice

Seedling vigor is the basic component of the transplanted rice, which depends on its growing environment and proper age. Thus the influence of nursery management and seedling age was evaluated after transplanting 10, 20, 30, and 40-days older seedlings raised by using seed rate (high and low) and nitrogen (N) (with and without) in rice growing season 2008 and 2009. Study revealed that 10-days older nursery seedlings, irrespective to nursery-bed treatments, showed accelerated growth start after transplanting in main field while at later stages significant interaction was observed. Transplanting of 20-days older fertilized seedlings grown at low seeding density at nursery-bed resulted in similar growth performance as in younger. Maximum net-benefit (45111, 44402 Rs. ha^?1) was recorded with transplanting 10-days older nursery seedlings while the fertilized seedlings grown at lower seeding density recorded highest net-benefit (37908, 36780 Rs. ha^?1) in both the years.     

Species loss and aboveground carbon storage in a tropical forest

Tropical forest biodiversity is declining, but the resulting effects on key ecosystem services, such as carbon storage and sequestration, remain unknown. We assessed the influence of the loss of tropical tree species on carbon storage by simulating 18 possible extinction scenarios within a well-studied 50-hectare tropical forest plot in Panama, which contains 227 tree species. Among extinction scenarios, aboveground carbon stocks varied by more than 600%, and biological insurance varied by more than 400%. These results indicate that future carbon storage in tropical forests will be influenced strongly by future species composition.     

Independently evolved virulence effectors converge onto hubs in a plant immune system network

Plants generate effective responses to infection by recognizing both conserved and variable pathogen-encoded molecules. Pathogens deploy virulence effector proteins into host cells, where they interact physically with host proteins to modulate defense. We generated an interaction network of plant-pathogen effectors from two pathogens spanning the eukaryote-eubacteria divergence, three classes of Arabidopsis immune system proteins, and ~8000 other Arabidopsis proteins. We noted convergence of effectors onto highly interconnected host proteins and indirect, rather than direct, connections between effectors and plant immune receptors. We demonstrated plant immune system functions for 15 of 17 tested host proteins that interact with effectors from both pathogens. Thus, pathogens from different kingdoms deploy independently evolved virulence proteins that interact with a limited set of highly connected cellular hubs to facilitate their diverse life-cycle strategies.