eChapters

Summary

Biodiversity (the variety of living things) is fundamental to ecosystem structures and functions, and provide the broad spectrum of goods and services that humans derive from natural systems such as food (e.g. fish), protection from disasters such as cyclones, storms, floods (e.g. mangroves) or maintenance of water quality. Species (biodiversity) respond to climate change either staying or moving out or dying out. For example, the rise of temperature as a consequence of climate change may cause some species to (a) stay in the same environment since they can tolerate to adapt to changes; or (b) may cause some species to move out in a suitable environment (e.g. some species to move pole ward, some up in elevation) or (c) some species (fish) to go deep to increased depths in the oceans to escape heat or warming or (d) may cause some species to die out or get extinct (species with restricted distribution, longer generation time will not be able to migrate or adapt to climate change). A pattern of range shifts such as pole wards and upwards has been documented in hundreds of species of plants and animals and is one of the strongest signals of biotic changes from global warming. These shifts result from two processes: cold-edge expansion and warm-edge contraction. There is now abundant evidence for local extinctions from contractions at the warm edges of species’ ranges or warm edge contraction because the species may have already reached the limits of their climatic tolerance. Investigations conducted reveals that many terrestrial and aquatic species are shifting their geographic ranges in response to rapid changes in temperature and precipitation regimes. For example, many terrestrial organisms are currently shifting in latitude or elevation in response to changing climate. It has been estimated that plants and animals have recently shifted to higher elevations at a median rate of 11.0 m per decade, and to higher latitudes at a median rate of 16.9 km per decade.

Table 1: Descriptive statistics of the socio-economic and communication characteristics of the respondents in terms of Range (Minimum and Maximum), Mean, Standard Deviation (SD) and Coefficient of Variation (CV) of Alluvial Zone in West Bengal

Table 1 Represents the distribution of variables in terms of range i.e. maximum and minimum values, mean, standard deviation and coefficient of variation for alluvial zone of West Bengal.

It has been found that for the independent variable age (x₁), the range lies between 82 and 27 years, where the oldest respondent is of 82 years and the youngest respondent being 27years old. The mean value of the age of the respondents in this study was found to be 51.49 years with a standard deviation of 12.42 in the dataset. Coefficient of variation for this variable was found to be 24.14 per cent, which indicates a high level of consistency in the distribution.

Bio-fertilizers, as the name indicates, are the fertilizers of biological origin (Gupta, 2012). In strict sense, real bio-fertilizers are green manures and organics - materials of biological origin which are added to supply plant nutrients present in them. However, in restricted scope, the term ìbio-fertilizersî or ìmicrobial inoculantsî are preparations of living organisms in alone or in combination, which may help in increasing crop productivity by way of fixing atmospheric Use of Bio-Fertilizers in Sustainable Agriculture 175 nitrogen in soils, solubilizing of insoluble plant nutrients, stimulating plant growth or decomposing of plant residues. 

1. Introduction

Pear is among the oldest of the world’s fruit crops, figuring in both Bible and the tales of Homer. They are by far the most important of the deciduous tree fruits, are widely grown in temperate and increasingly, in tropical regions, and figure prominently in world trade. The fruit is primarily grown for the fresh fruit market, which is much more remunerative than that for processing.

Pear (Pyrus communis, Rosaceaea family), is a deciduous fruit, grown under a wide variety of climatic regimes, ranging from cold dry temperature hilly conditions to warm humid subtropical conditions. It is grown in many places of India like Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Utter Pradesh. Sandy pear plants were brought to Amritsar by travellers from China who settled at Harsha Chinna village near Amritsar about 2,500 years ago. The Kashmir valley represents one of the major Pear (Pyrus communis.L.) growing areas of the world. Pear was introduced in India from China. The time at which Pear was introduced to Kashmir is not precisely known, however Yukteshwar Kumar writes in his book “A History of SinoIndian Relations” that peach and pear came to India during the early years of the Eastern Han period (25 AD to 220 AD). This pre historic fruit has been under cultivation both in Europe and Asia for about 3000 years (Hedrick et al., 1921). Between 16^th and 18^th centuries, many European writers travelling Kashmir noted fantastic royal gardens of the Mughals, mentioning the abundance of peach, pear, plum and cherry trees, with fountains spouting cold, icy water. Pear (Pyrus communis. L), originating from the German word ‘peer’ meaning fruit, is a fascinating fruit steeped in rich history. This fruit is known as ‘tang’ in Kashmiri language. Low chill requiring pears are being cultivated in plains of North India. Cultivars requiring high chilling hours (900-1000) are cultivated at higher hills of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Majority of the Pear production is actually limited to Kashmir however, low chilling cultivars grow in subtropical regions.

Proteins are large biological molecules, or macromolecules, consisting of one or more chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within living organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, replicating DNA, responding to stimuli, and transporting molecules from one location to another. Proteins differ from one another primarily in their sequence of amino acids, which is dictated by the nucleotide sequence of their genes, and which usually results in folding of the protein into a specific three-dimensional structure that determines its activity. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain derived from the condensation of amino acids. The individual amino acid residues are bonded together by peptide bonds and adjacent amino acid residues. The sequence of amino acid residues in a protein is defined by the sequence of a gene, which is encoded in the genetic code. In general, the genetic code specifies 20 standard amino acids; however, in certain organisms the genetic code can include selenocysteine and, in certain archaea-pyrrolysine. Shortly after or even during synthesis, the residues in a protein are often chemically modified by post translational modification, which alters the physical and chemical properties, folding, stability, activity, and ultimately, the function of the proteins. Sometimes proteins have non-peptide groups attached, which can be called prosthetic groups or cofactors. Proteins can also work together to achieve a particular function, and they often associate to form stable protein complexes.

Like other biological macromolecules such as pollysaccharides and nucleic acids, proteins are essential parts of organisms and participate in virtually every process within cells. Many proteins are enzymes that catalyse biochemical reactions and are vital to metabolism. Proteins also have structural or mechanical functions, such as actin and myosin in muscle and the proteins in the cytoskeleton, which form a system of scaffolding that maintains cell shape. Other proteins are important in cell signalling, immune responses, cell adhesion, and the cell cycle. Proteins are also necessary in animals’ diets, since animals cannot synthesize all the amino acids they need and must obtain essential amino acids from food. Through the process of digestion, animals break down ingested protein into free amino acids that are then used in metabolism.

C    :    Cytosine.
C domains    :    The constant regions of the polypeptide chains of immunoglobulin molecules are made up of one or more constant domains or C domains of similar structure; each immunoglobulin chain also has a single variable or V domain.

Nitrogen ranks fourth element in cell composition after C, H and O. It forms main components of amino acids, the building blocks of peptides and proteins. Besides, it is present in the genetic material of cell as well as in the chlorophyll and cell wall in the form of chitin and mucopeptides. Plant growth in soil is often limited by less supply of nitrogen, therefore a major nutrient limiting factor in crop production. About 26 x 10⁶ Mg N is globally applied to soil each year to enhance crop productivity.

Appendix-'C'    :    Damage Prevention and Rehabilitation by Retrofitting
    
Appendix-'D'    :    Dos and Don'ts While Constructing Buildings
    
Case Study    :    Bhuj Earthquake 26th January, 2001
            Eyjafjallajoekull (Iceland) Volcano - 2010

P    :    Phosphate.

p    :    Pico (10^-12).

P&S    :    Permanent and stationary.

PO    :    Per oral; by mouth (see also IV; IP;).

PA    :    Postero-anterior; pulmonary artery.
   
PAC    :    P1-derived artificial chromosome.

ABSTRACT

Plasmids are circular, double-stranded DNA molecules which replicate autonomously from the chromosome of the host organism. Plasmids are found in many bacterial species and often confer upon the host cell phenotypic characteristics such as resistance to antibiotics, resistance to heavy metals, ability to produce particular protiens, conjugative (mating) ability and ability to degrade xenobiotc compounds. One of these degradative plasmids may encode a complete catabolic pathway (such as toluene to pyruvate, formate and acetaldehyde) or partial degradative steps, such as octane to octanol. In this later case, the remainder of the pathway may be encoded by chromosomal genes, by genes of other plasmid present in the host, or by other microorganisms. Many degradative plasmids possess a broad host range, especially among the gram-negative bacterial species.

There are different mechanisms which may be involved in the evolution of aromatic pathways in general and in the process of adaptation of microorganisms to xenobiotic substrates in particular. Gene transfer, the occurrence of plasmids in bacteria in the natural environment is an important pool of genetic information residing on plasmid vehicles may flow among indigenous microorganisms. Since many examples of self-transmissible plasmids that carry genes for degradation of aromatic or other xenobiotic compounds are known, and their role in spreading these genes to other microorganisms is well characterized. Early, studies of TOL, NAH, and SAL plasmids revealed strong homologies among these plasmids in regions both inside and outside the catabolic gene clusters. Plasmids, pJP4, pAC25, and PSS50, catabolic plasmids carrying genes for chloroaromatic degradation, have strongly homologous plasmid backbone that determine replication and transfer function. Furthermore, the chlorobenzoate plasmid p51 was also shown to be homologous to pJP4 outside regions of the catabolic genes. These observations suggest that a few common self-transmissible ancestor replicons (includes origin of replication and replication gene) may have been involved in acquisition and spread of different catabolic genes. DNA

8.1 Black Pepper Breeding

Black pepper (Piper nigrum L., family:Piperaceae), known as the ‘King of Spices’ and “Black gold”, is one of the important spices since time immemorial and perhaps the oldest spice regarded globally. It is a perennial climber grown for its fruits that are used as spice with plethora of medicinal properties. Black pepper is also very important in traditional medicine (Ravindran, 2000). However, it is mainly valued for its characteristic pungency and flavour, as an ingredient in food preparations and also as a condiment.

Genetic Resources

World’s largest collection of black pepper germplasm is maintained by the Indian Institute of Spices Research (IISR) at Kozhikode, Kerala, containing local cultivars, wild forms collected from the area of origin and related species. At present there are about 3466 accessions, consisting of 1266 wild relatives, 2062 cultivars, in addition to 9 exotic collections maintained in India. These collections were characterized and evaluated to estimate the genetic diversity for various yield and quality characters. Cultivar diversity is one of the principal components of diversity in black pepper. The cultivars are evolved directly from the wild P. nigrum.

Definitions

        Toxicology: Knowledge (or science) of poisons, including their chemical properties, identification, biological effects, and the treatment of conditions they cause.

        Poison: Any solid, liquid, or gas that, when introduced into or applied to the body, can interfere with the life processes of cells of the organism - by its own inherent chemical properties - without acting mechanically and regardless of temperature.

Statistics has originated as a science of statehood and found applications slowly and steadily in Agriculture, Economics, Commerce, Biology, Medicine, Industry, planning, education and so on. Sir Ronald A. Fisher, (1890 – 1962), who is called “the Father of Statistics”, drew many solid conclusions

1.2 Definition

Statistics is the science which deals with the collection of data, organisation of data (or) classification of data, presentation of data, analysis of data and interpretation of data, which are known as the statistical methods.

“Statistics is the science, technology and art of creating new knowledge.”

–RA Fisher.

“By statistics we mean, aggregate of facts affected to a marked

extent by multiplicity of causes numerically expressed enumerated or

estimated according to reasonable standard of accuracy collected in a

systematic manner for a predetermined purpose and placed in relation

to each other.”

– Professor Horace Secrist

Number line

Every real number occupies a position on the number line and conversely,

every point of the line can be matched with a real number.

Absolute value

The absolute value of modules of a number is equivalent to the value of that

number ignoring the sign. For example, the absolute value for -1 is 1, and the

absolute value of +1 is also 1.The absolute value is defined by the symbol

?x?.

    1.    Microbial Risk Assessment (MRA) can be considered a tool for use in the management of the risks posed by food borne pathogens and in the elaboration of standards for food in international trade.

    2.    MRA comprises risk assessments of particular pathogen - commodity combinations

    3.    According to codex alimentarious commission (CAC) microbial risk assessment is defined as a scientifically based process consisting of 4 components.

        ·    Hazard identification
        ·    Exposure assessment
        ·    Hazard characterization
        ·    Risk characterization

7.1 General

The major portion of water in a crop field gets lost through evaporation and transpiration. Evaporation is the process by which water is changed from the liquid state to vapor state. It takes place from the adjacent soil, water surface or from the surfaces of leaves of the plants. Transpiration is the removal of water vapour through plant body. Evapotranspiration(ET) is the sum of evaporation and transpiration. The process of evaporation and transpiration goes on simultaneously and difficult to separate them in a crop field.

The term consumptive use is used to refer evapotranspiration together with the water used in the metabolic activities of the crop plants. The actual amount of water used in metabolic activities is insignificant (less than 1% to ET). Therefore, the consumptive use and evapotranspiration are often used as synonymous term. It includes the water consumed by the plants

As water consists of two positively charged hydrogen ions and a single negatively charged oxygen ion, water is arranged as a polar molecule having positive and negative sides. This molecular polarity leads to water’s high dielectric constant (ability to withstand or balance an electric field). Water is able to dissolve many substances because the polar water molecules align to shield each ion, resisting the recombination of the ions.

Every nutrient has its specific functions to play in the biological system. As we know there are six nutrients i.e., water, carbohydrate, protein, fat, minerals and vitamins and each of these have different functions, it will be discussed separately for each nutrients.

2.1 Water

Water is the ideal dispersing medium because of its solvent and ionizing powers which facilititates cell reaction and due to its high specific heat which helps to absorb the heat of these reactions with a minimum rise of temperature. Lean adult body contains about 70 percent of water, though the amount varies from embryo to mature animals.