St. Augustinegrass (Stenotaphrum secundatum (Walt.) Kuntze) generally has poor cold tolerance yet good to excellent shade tolerance. As mostly hot summers follow cold winters in USDA Hardiness Zone 7, severely damaging tall fescue (Lolium arundinaceum (Schreb.) Darbysh.) and centipedegrass (Eremochloa ophiuroides (Munro) Hack.), a St. Augustinegrass cultivar cold tolerant enough to be grown for shady lawns would greatly benefit home owners, recreational sites, and sod growers in the “transition zone.” Eight St. Augustinegrass samples were selected, including industry standards ‘Raleigh’ and ‘Palmetto’, plus ‘Palisades’ zoysiagrass (Zoysia japonica Steud.) for further testing from an established germplasm collection of material collected from lawns grown in USDA Hardiness Zone 7. Overall, based on 8-week greenhouse studies, the experimental lines had similar shade tolerance compared to commercial standards ‘Raleigh’ ‘Palmetto’ and ‘Palisades’ zoysiagrass. Field studies may be warranted to validate greenhouse studies to help further evaluate shade tolerance of experimental and commercial lines. Information generated supports the use of certain St. Augustinegrass selection in a wider environmental conditions such as reduced light environments (RLE). Show less

The purpose of the trial was to check the effects of two grapevine treatments on the plant activity and on the bioactivity and biovariability of the soil. An alkaline complex of Soluble Biobased Substances (SBS) was used in soil at 30 g per plant in a single solution. Salicylic Acid (SA) was used on leaves at 150 mg l-1 every two weeks at 50 ml plant. The plants were examined for their foliar pH and NIR spectra. The soil bioactivity was monitored by means of hay-Litterbag-NIRS (LBN) in combination with the Teabag Index (TBI), using rooibos and green tea that had been buried for 60 days. The evolution of the TBI presented here concerns the TBI-NIRS spectroscopic method used for discriminant analysis. A new algorithm was used to estimate the soil microbiome from the green Teabag spectra. The obtained results showed that the plants and the soil responded to the treatments. In fact, SBS, but not SA, lowered the leaf pH by 5%, an unexpected and original result. Both treatments increased the variability of the leaf composition, with a lower discrimination, based on the NIR spectra, from the Control (75%) to 44% (SA) and 38% (SBS). The TBI method, which is based on weights, was less efficient (67%) than the TBI-NIRS of rooibos (96%) or the LBN of hay (80%), but it was like the TBI-NIRS of green tea (74%). The LBN analyses indicated that the mycorrhizal index had increased by 8% in SA but had reduced by 7% in SBS, while both treatments reduced the activity of the microbes, which did not affect the soil respiration rate. The mineral N in the soil was substantially raised by about 11÷69%. The Taxa profiles showed marked deviations from the Control. Moreover, the SBS treatment reduced the Glomeromycota by 35%, which matched to the reduction in the mycorrhizal index. The most favored Bacteria from the treatments were Proteobateriaand Actinobacteria, with Mortierellomycota being the most penalized. Neither treatment affected the production, but both delayed the technological maturity by 9-11%, while the SBS retarded the phenolic maturity by about 18%. It has been concluded that a simple treatment of vines can affect the bioactivity in the leaves and berries as well as the biovariability of the soil. Show less

Environmental pollution until this moment still become crucial environmental problem. Environmental pollution can occur anywhere, one of them is in agriculture sectoral. Environmental pollution in the agriculture area caused by usage of chemical pesticide for managing agriculture. Using chemical pesticide can leave residue that raises pollution. Bioremediation become one of the solutions for the problem. Besides it is environmental friendly, bioremediation is also easy to apply and cheap. This study aim to examine the potency of Bacillus altitudinis , Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas b68, and Pseudomonas b70 as biological agent for bioremediation of pesticide residues in soil Biological agent was incubated in liquid medium polluted pesticide type fungicide for 15 days on some variation concentration pesticides (100, 200, 300) mg/L. Concentration of pesticides and values Optical density (OD) is measured every 3 days with spectrophotometer UV -Vis on long 280 nm and 578 nm waves. The Results showed that the bioagents lower pesticides concentration. and can growing under polluted pesticides conditions  The effectiveness and decline in pesticide residue by Bacillus altitudinis ranged from 49.91-59.33%; Bacillus subtilis (50.06-60.51%); Pseudomonas b68 (81.32-86.13 %); Pseudomonas b70 (50.02- 62.1 %). The bioagents produced decreases in the concentration of pesticides, increase in OD value, and decrease in pH indicate. The results affirmed that Bacillus altitudinis, Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas b68, and Pseudomonas b70 are effective as bioagents in the remediation pesticides polluted soils Show less

Objectives The solid-liquid separation (SLS) process generally separates solid and liquid fractions in wastewater and livestock manure. The solid-liquid separation process is an essential pretreatment step for the recycling and purification of pig manure. This study has assessed the separation and/or reduction efficiency by various SLS processes used in pig farms. Methods Seven types of SLS processes (centrifuge, centrifuge (+coagulation agent), belt press (+ coagulation agent), drum screen, inclined screen, vibration screen, and screw press) were used on 11 pig farms and conducted a comparative analysis. As for the sample in this study, the pig raw manure before treatment, the separated liquid and solid manure after treatment of the SLS process collected, respectively. These samples were provided for pH, EC(electrical conductivity) moisture content, CODMn, BOD5, TN, TP, K, TS, SS, NaCl, and heavy metals analysis. Results and Discussion The belt press (+coagulation agent) process had the highest TS and SS reduction rate of 78.8% and 96.9%, respectively. The highest removal efficiency of TN and TP was41.0% and 94.2% by belt press (+coagulation agent) and centrifuge (+coagulation agent),respectively. The belt press (+coagulation agent) removed 59.4% and 66.0% of BOD5 and CODMn,respectively. The Zn and Cu were removed 100% and 98.6% by centrifuge (+coagulation agent).However, the drum screen, inclined screen, vibration screen, screw press, and centrifuge showed lower removal efficiency of nutrient contents, solids, Zn, and Cu than centrifugal and belt press processes with chemical coagulation. Conclusions The centrifugal and belt press separation processes that used chemical coagulation showed much more removal efficiency of nutrient contents, solids, and metals like Zn and Cu. Although SLS with chemical coagulants is an effective pre-treatment process for liquid manure treatment and helps removal effect for suspended solids, nutrients, and heavy metals, further studies are needed on how it affects biological or chemical processing processes that are linked. Show less