T3 ONE HEALTH MALAWI Research Papers Landscape

T3 ONE HEALTH MALAWI Research Papers Landscape

Landscape

2021

• TITLE - Nematode Community-Based Soil Food Web Analysis of Ferralsol, Lithosol and Nitosol Soil Groups in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi Reveals Distinct Soil Health Degradations
• AUTHOR - Haddish Melakeberhan, ZinThuZar Maung, Isaac Lartey, Senol Yildiz, Jenni Gronseth, Jiaguo Qi, George N. Karuku, John W. Kimenju, Charles Kwoseh, Thomas Adjei-Gyapong
• JOURNAL - Diversity
• ABSTRACT - Determining if the vast soil health degradations across the seven major soil groups (orders) of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) can be managed on the basis of a one-size-fits-all or location-specific approach is limited by a lack of soil group-based understanding of soil health degradations. We used the relationship between changes in nematode population dynamics relative to food and reproduction (enrichment, EI) and resistance to disturbance (structure, SI) indices to characterize the soil food web (SFW) and soil health conditions of Ferralsol, Lithosol and Nitosol soil groups in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi. We applied bivariate correlations of EI, SI, soil pH, soil organic carbon (SOC), and texture (sand, silt and clay) to identify integrated indicator parameters, and principal component analysis (PCA) to determine how all measured parameters, soil groups, and countries align. A total of 512 georeferenced soil samples from disturbed (agricultural) and undisturbed (natural vegetation) landscapes were analyzed. Nematode trophic group abundance was low and varied by soil group, landscape and country. The resource-limited and degraded SFW conditions separated by soil groups and by country. EI and SI correlation with SOC varied by landscape, soil group or country. PCA alignment showed separation of soil groups within and across countries. The study developed the first biophysicochemical proof-of-concept that the soil groups need to be treated separately when formulating scalable soil health management strategies in SSA.
• ISSUE - 3
• VOLUME - 13
• DOI - 10.3390/d13030101

2021

• TITLE - Environmental Impacts of Invasive Alien Plant Species on the Biodiversity of the Nyika National Park, Rumphi District, Malawi
• AUTHOR - D. Kacheche Robert, Kapute Mzuza Maureen
• JOURNAL - American Journal of Plant Sciences
• ABSTRACT - Invasive alien plant species have threatened the integrity of ecosystems and threatened biological integrity throughout the world. In the Nyika National Park, a number of alien invasive plant species have been reported. These invasive alien plants are reported to be very difficult that have caused adverse ecological, economic and social impact. The main objective of this study is to assess the environmental impact of plant invasive alien species in Nyika National Park in order to ascertain means of addressing the possible effects on the biodiversity. This study adopted an exploratory stance in order to answer the hypotheses where purposive and simple random sampling was used. Pur posive sampling was only used to the staff of Nyika while simple random sampling was used to collect data from households surrounding Nyika National Park. The results revealed that invasive alien plant species have some ecological impacts of on the biodiversity of the Nyika National Park like change in physical habitats such as loss of native habitats, alteration of ground water regime, drying of rivers, loss of native species and alteration of biomass. The study would therefore be important to policy makers in guiding and development of policies and guidelines governing eradication of invasive alien plant species. The Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) can form partnership with various stakeholders with a clearly stated intention of developing a relationship, based on collaboration to enhance the control of invading alien plant species and the best management practices.
• ISSUE - 10
• VOLUME - 12
• DOI - 10.4236/ajps.2021.1210106

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