In Katanga (D.R. Congo), a long history of mining activities has contaminated soils with heavy metals over very large areas. This represents a major concern to sustainable development and human health. Ecological restoration of those areas is challenging. The speech will present the results of a cooperation development project with the Faculty of Agronomic Sciences of the University of Lubumbashi, focused on the restoration of soil polluted by the metallurgical industry. The most original ecosystems in Katanga are the so-called "copper hills" i.e. natural outcrops of bedrock enriched in copper and cobalt. The natural vegetation of copper hills is surprisingly rich and diversified. The project developed applied ecological research in copper hills and ex situ i.e. in a botanic garden created for the occasion. A number of “metallophytes” have been screened for heavy metal tolerance and accumulation and for other traits of interest. One species has emerged as a good candidate and has been successfully domesticated in the botanic garden. The first in situ “phytostabilisation” trials have been installed in the area contaminated by atmospheric fallout downwind the copper smelter of Lubumbashi. Establishment, growth and survival have been monitored for 5 years. The results show that Katangan metallophytes exhibit extraordinary ecophysiological properties which are still poorly understood. They represent unique biological resources to ecological restoration of metal-polluted soils in tropical regions. The conservation of those resources must be explicitly considered in ongoing and future mining projects in Katanga.

Sea Shepherd Global has been cooperating with the governments of Liberia, Gabon, Sao Tome and Tanzania to target illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in their waters. Foreign fishing fleets are causing massive damages to local fish populations and local artisanal fishermen are reporting ever declining catches, putting their food security at risk. Over the past two years, these cooperation’s have resulted in the arrest of over 50 vessels and for the first time in decades local catches are increasing again. Since 2000 Sea Shepherd has been working with the Ecuadorian authorities to provide support in order to protect the Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR). Our work has focussed primarily to combat illegal fishing and wildlife smuggling. It ranges from providing ships and materials; the building of an Automatic Identification System (AIS) to monitor all vessel movement to the selection and training of a specialised police dog unit that is able to detect wildlife smuggling. We work together with the Galapagos National Park Service and the Ecuadorian National Police to protect this World Heritage Site.

Statement of the problem: The preservation of ecosystems requires a significant demand for resources, such as personal, financial and infrastructure, which are increasingly difficult to justify due to lack of sustainability and restrictions of use. Tourism could be a good response, however, while goods and services that support visitation are relatively easy to account, other less tangible environmental services, such as biodiversity, can be difficult to be valued. To evaluate these assets is important in order to take the best decisions for ecosystem management. In this work emergy is applied to evaluate the natural capital, in a conservation area in the south of Brazil. The objective is to be able to predict the economic and environmental viability of the study area for a conservation tourism proposal. Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: To place the value of biodiversity in perspective, emergy synthesis of the main storages and ecological processes in the study area are calculated. For the evaluation of renewable inputs to the Peri Lake, solar energy, rainfall, runoff, and wind annual averages are used. Findings: The highest value is recorded for biodiversity ($354 billion), shrub and herbaceous vegetation represents $14 billion emdollars, tree biomass $5.7 billion emdollars, and water extracted for supply $12,4 thousand emdollars. Conclusion & Significance: Biodiversity clearly dominates the environmental assets of the study area. Biodiversity represents the information of the ecosystem reflected in the diversity of the species. It also results in a large input of grants from sponsors, driving most of the research in the area. These results show that the local government strategy, focused only on water extraction is not a good one. Tourism conservation based on natural assets, for example, could be much more attractive.

Intraspecific trait variation (ITV) can play an important role in community assembly and the maintenance of biodiversity. However, fundamental gaps remain in our understanding of how ITV affect species dynamics and mediate species response to biotic and abiotic constrains. We developed a hierarchical Bayesian neighborhood modeling approach to quantify the simultaneous effects of climate factors and crowding by neighbors on the survival 97 tropical tree species located in eleven 0.5-1ha plots of temperate forest in northeast China. We build multi-level regression models to evaluate how key leaf functional traits mediate tree survival response to climate factors and neighborhood crowding. Specifically, we contrasted results from mean and habitat specialized trait values. With the increase of the annual minimum temperature, the survival rate of trees increased, suggesting that low temperature stress can significantly inhibit tree survival. However, water stress has no significant impact on tree survival. Trees had higher survival when the heterogenetic neighborhood increased, while conspecific neighborhood had no influence on tree survival. Species with high leaf area and high leaf nitrogen content had lower survival rates, while species with high leaf carbon isotope content and high leaf carbon content had higher survival rates. The species with higher leaf carbon stable isotope were not sensitive to the promotion effect of heterogenetic neighborhood, while the species with larger area was not sensitive to the inhibition of low temperature. In addition, considering intraspecific trait variation can significantly improve the predictive ability of functional traits and more accurately reflect the response of trees to neighborhood composition and abiotic factors.

Tropical tuber crops play an important role in catering the food needs especially in the context of burgeoning population. Sweet potato, cassava, elephant foot yam, taro and yams are major tropical tuber crops. Many insects and mites are associated with these crops either as pests causing economic damage or as beneficial ones as natural bio-control agents. More than 150 species of insect and mite infest these crops andimportant are - sweet potato weevil and vine borer damaging vines and tubers; cassava scale insects, mites, mealy bugs and whiteflies causing defoliation; aphids, mealy bugs and caterpillars on taro & elephant foot yam, and scale insects and leaf feeders on yams. Major natural enemies of sweet potato weevil Cylas formicarius are - ectoparasitoids - Rhaconotus menippus N., Bracon sp., Pachybracon sp. & Spathius dido N. and predators - Tetramorium smithi, Tetramorium bicarinatum (Ny), Monomorium destructor (J), M. pharaones, Solenopsis geminate and Euborellia stali D. Many more parasitoids and predators are also reported as beneficial arthropods of sweet potato pests. Cassava scale Aonidomytilus albus (C) infests stems, shoots and even sometimes leaf petioles and leaf undersides. Scale insects brown scale Saissetia nigra, Saissetia coffeae (W), Parasaissetia nigra N. and Lepidosaphes sp also infest cassava. Larvae and adults of coccenellids – Chilocorus nigritus F. Syemnus quimeti Muls., Chilomenus sexmaculatus F. and  Stethorus pariepunctatus Kapur prey on the scales. As many as 50 natural enemies are known to attack the whiteflies in different locations. Aphelimid parasitoids often regulate the field population of whitefly up to 12.1%. Parasitoids recorded on B. tabaci include Encarsia transvena (Tim), E. bimacualata (H&Po), E. nigriphala (Do), E. strenua (S), E. haitiensis (Do), E. guadeloupe (V), E. azimi (Ha), E. pergandiella (Ho), Eretmocerus mundus (Mer) and Eretmocerus sp.  On spiraling whitefly, Encarsia quadeloupae V and E. haitiensis are important. Predators mostly generalists and few host specific have been recorded in India. The major predators are coccinellids and chrysopids.  Among the coccinellids, Anegleis cardoni (We), Anegleis perrotteti (Mu), Axinoscymnus puttarudriahi Ka & Mu, Cheilomenes sexmaculata (F), Jauravia spp. and Cryptolaemus montrouzieri Mu are common. Mealybug - Paracoccus marginatus is known to attack many crops including cassava and Acerophagus papaya parasitoid play an important role in its management. Madeira mealybug - Phenacoccus madeirensis damage cassava in parts of Karnataka and the parasitoids noted are Allotropa sp., Anagyrus sinope, Anagyrus quadrii and Anagyrus loeckii.  Biotic agents of spidermites include Coccenellids- Pharoscymnus hornii Weise, Stethorus gilvifrons Muls., thrips – Scolothrips indicus P. and phytoseiid mites – Amblyseius longispinosus Evans.  Aphids - Aphis gossypii Glov and Pentalonia nigronervosa Coq., infest aroids. Aphelinus mali H., Aphelinus sp., Coccophagus cowperi Gir. and Aphidencyrtus aphidivorus May. are parasitoids on aphids.  Aphidophagous predators are Menochilus sexmaculatus F., Verania discolor F., Pseudospidimerus circumflexus Mots., V. inops Muls., Ischiodon scutellaris F.  and spiders. Aspidiella hartii is a key pest of Yam (Dioscorea Spp.) in field and storage. Two parasitoids Adelencyrtus moderatus H. and Physcus comperi H often regulate pest population. Beneficial arthropods found in these crops are largely the natural enemies of the insect and mite pests. Natural enemies are indispensable mortality factors operating in any ecosystem. Conservation and utilization of indigenous parasitoids and predators are paramount necessity and can provide a long term sustainable ecologically safe pest management.

Ecodegradation (deteoration of environmental qualities) and Ecorestoration(return of an ecodegraded ecosystem to a close approximation of its condition prior to disturbation) represent two contrasting ecological terms dealing with eco-management of any ecosystem of the world. Ecorestoration being a multidimensional activity involve all major hierarchial levels of ecological organizations from species to entire ecosystem.  Coastal- mangrove ecosystem representing   the most productive and dynamic ecosystem of the world, supports innumerable number of flora  and fauna in its diversified habitats and ecological niches. A comprehensive  decadal  study on biodiversity and environmental characteristics (water and soil qualities) of three different selected study sites located on different estuarine networks viz. Matla, Saptamukhi and Hooghly on eastern, central and western regions, of Sundarbans Mangrove Ecosystem, India, a World Heritage Site, was conducted.A total of 39 species of true mangroves,23 genera of phytoplankton, 42 species of zooplankton, 18 families of ichthyoplankton, 79 species of macrobenthos , and diversified forms of fishes, reptiles, birds and mammals have been recorded. However, different human centric developmental activities (industrialization, urbanization ,ecotourism etc.) have  contributed a lot towards the large scale ecodegradation coupled with  loss of biodiversity in this  sensitive, vulnerable and productive ecosystems of the world.

In such context, the present paper  will highlight 4 fold of objectives—1) Assessment of existing  biodiversity , ecological services and trend of  changes during last two decades; 2) Identification of causative factors(Threats -sources and characteristics) leading to ecodegradation and biodiversity loss; 3) Evaluation of already undertaken eco-restoration efforts  and their impact in the present studied environment (Biodiversity and their habitats 4) Chalking out restoration strategies adhering to the underlying ecological principles.

Statement of the Problem: The Eastern Ghats of India with vast stretches of tropical deciduous forests and natural vegetation faces rapid land cover changes in recent decades through deforestation, agricultural encroachments and infrastructure development, and thereby affecting the rich biodiversity. Evidences suggest that the phenology of organisms, species biogeography and the composition and dynamics of communities are changing in response to a changing climate (Walther et al., 2002). Bats (Chiroptera: Mammalia) being classic examples of biodiversity indicators and the most diverse groups of mammals form important component of study to understand the impact of habitat degradation, deforestation and rapid rate of urbanisation. Therefore, the purpose of the present work is to study the diversity and distribution of bats in Eastern Ghats of Odisha, India from an ecological perspective. 

Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: Sampling sites were selected through stratified random sampling technique and inventory of bats was carried out following roost survey and mist net survey methods (Bat Conservation Trust, 2007). During field survey, available caves, crevices, tree holes, deserted buildings and old temples were surveyed for additional bat roosting sites. Findings: During the study, 23 species of bats in seven families were recorded along the Eastern Ghats of Odisha, which includes first records of Lesser False vampire bat (Megaderma spasma), and Cantor’s Leaf nosed Bat (Hipposideros galeritus). The species richness was recorded higher from the northern parts and mostly from the Similipal Biosphere Reserve representing >80% of all the recorded species. The diversity was observed highest in moist deciduous forest followed by dry deciduous forest, agricultural land, human habitation and semi evergreen forest. 

Conclusion & Significance: Natural habitats along the Eastern Ghats were found to be important habitat for bats as both the species richness and diversity were reported significantly higher in these habitats. The findings on distribution pattern of different bat species of this study can be used in future studies with respect to increasing anthropogenic activities and to develop appropriate conservation plans.

Biodiversity-Based Economy Development Office (BEDO) has ultimate goal to create employment, income, and opportunities for the local communities in Thailand. BEDO promotes bioresources utilization for economic purposes, to encourage conservation of biodiversity and traditional knowledge. In 2015, BEDO developed the Community Biodiversity Bank or Community BioBank concept for initiating the natural resources repository at the community level. “Community BioBank” means a place for storing bioresources and traditional knowledge with the participation of the community in maintenance and management of local bioresources. Those bioresources are preserved and maintained to be alive for propagation. The Community BioBank can be used as a source for research and development of bioresources diversity, and as a community learning center leading to protection and sustainable utilization. Community BioBank consists of 3 elements: 1) Living Collections, both In situ and Ex situ; 2) Database; and 3) Management of Material Transfers from and into the BioBank. In December 2016, the first Community BioBank, Longan Community BioBank, was officially established in the Nong Chang Keun sub-district, Lamphun province.   Indigeneous longan varieties of this area more than 200 longan trees have come from over 12 varieties. Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: The operation requires collaboration of community organizations, local administrative bodies, and educational institutes. Local administrative organization role is to support operations or areas for storing community bioresources whereas educational institutes provide scientific knowledge. BEDO has the duty to provide financial support for Community BioBank’s operation namely surveys, mobile application to collect information, gathering of samples and recording of local biological resources in database system. Conclusion & Significance: Community BioBank serves as one of the mechanisms driving conservation and utilization of bioresources through community’s participation. This, together with rules and principles for sustainable resource conservation, will serve as a crucial instrument in generating income for the people. 

The aim of this study is to look at anthropogenic influences on primary succession processes of glacier foreland sites. This is one of the first studies which try to look at additional external factors, like sheep grazing, influencing species assembly processes of succession sites. These external factors have been nearly constantly overlooked when studying proglacial areas so far. Glacier forelands in Central Europe have been buried under ice masses since the Little Ice Age (LIA) or even the end of the early Holocene warm period, 8000 years ago, hence buried soils stayed completely untouched. Because anthropogenic influences, like grazing of domestic animals and hiking trails, can potentially alter the autogenous processes of glacier foreland sites, this study tries to disentangle these effects. For this study, a vegetation surveys including 144 releves (Braun-Blanquet approach) was conducted in three valleys of the Venediger mountain range, Austria: one valley, the Untersulzbachvalley (“Untersulzbachtal”), is part of the special protected area “Wildnisgebiet Sulzbachtäler” where sheep are excluded, both other valleys, the Viltragenvalley (“Viltragental”) and Frosnitzvalley (“Frosnitztal”), are part of the core zone of the National Park Hohe Tauern, where extensive sheep pasturing is allowed. Differences in the species composition and richness between releves were analyzed with distance-based- Redundancy-Analysis (dbRDA) and Generalized-Mixed-Effect-Models (GLMM). Best models, based on the AIC (Akaike Information Criterion), were selected. Additionally, the effects of hiking trails on the space use of sheep were analyzed by Zero-inflated-Regression-Models. Results suggest that free roaming sheep are influencing plant species composition and richness of the two grazed glacier foreland sites, while the ungrazed special protected area did not show any of these patterns. Additionally, it was found that sheep highly favour areas closer to hiking trails, indicating that these anthropogenic infrastructures indirectly effect the surrounding vegetation.

The aim of this study is to look at anthropogenic influences on primary succession processes of glacier foreland sites. This is one of the first studies which try to look at additional external factors, like sheep grazing, influencing species assembly processes of succession sites. These external factors have been nearly constantly overlooked when studying proglacial areas so far. Glacier forelands in Central Europe have been buried under ice masses since the Little Ice Age (LIA) or even the end of the early Holocene warm period, 8000 years ago, hence buried soils stayed completely untouched. Because anthropogenic influences, like grazing of domestic animals and hiking trails, can potentially alter the autogenous processes of glacier foreland sites, this study tries to disentangle these effects. For this study, a vegetation surveys including 144 releves (Braun-Blanquet approach) was conducted in three valleys of the Venediger mountain range, Austria: one valley, the Untersulzbachvalley (“Untersulzbachtal”), is part of the special protected area “Wildnisgebiet Sulzbachtäler” where sheep are excluded, both other valleys, the Viltragenvalley (“Viltragental”) and Frosnitzvalley (“Frosnitztal”), are part of the core zone of the National Park Hohe Tauern, where extensive sheep pasturing is allowed. Differences in the species composition and richness between releves were analyzed with distance-based- Redundancy-Analysis (dbRDA) and Generalized-Mixed-Effect-Models (GLMM). Best models, based on the AIC (Akaike Information Criterion), were selected. Additionally, the effects of hiking trails on the space use of sheep were analyzed by Zero-inflated-Regression-Models. Results suggest that free roaming sheep are influencing plant species composition and richness of the two grazed glacier foreland sites, while the ungrazed special protected area did not show any of these patterns. Additionally, it was found that sheep highly favour areas closer to hiking trails, indicating that these anthropogenic infrastructures indirectly effect the surrounding vegetation.

The increase of anthropogenic activities is likely to influence populations of the endangered species Pinna nobilis. Here we estimate the population’s density of P. nobilis, in spring 2016, and we measured the effects of dissolved oxygen, salinity and heavy metal concentration (Fe, Zn, Cd and Ni) on its distribution, in shallow and thus usually most impacted areas around the Bizerte lagoon; southern Mediterranean sea. At eight evaluated sites. We find certain distinct densities ranging from (0 to 30 individuals/100 m2). These differences could be explained by heavy metal distribution, where station close the metallurgic industry at city of Menzel Bourguiba showed zero fan mussel densities. However, protected bivalves density was related to dissolved oxygen, hence, P. nobilis are regularly detected living within seagrass meadows, where dissolved oxygen is usually oversaturated due to strong photosynthesis. Despite the pressures generated in Bizerte lagoon, the P. nobilis populations remain important, in fact, conservation programs need to be established to protect species.

Some materials take place in class of smart materials with adaptive properties and   stimulus response to the external changes. Shape memory alloys take place in this group, due to the shape reversibility and capacity of responding to changes in the environment. These alloys exhibit a peculiar property called shape memory effect, which is characterized by the recoverability of two certain shapes of material at different temperatures. Shape memory effect is initiated by cooling and stressing material and performed thermally on heating and cooling. This behavior is called thermal memory or thermoelasticity, and governed by thermal and stress induced martensitic transformations. Thermal induced transformation occurs on cooling along with lattice twinning, with which ordered parent phase structures turn into twinned martensite structure; and twinned structures turn into detwinned martensite structure by means of stress induced martensitic transformation by stressing material in martensitic condition. Shape memory effect is performed thermally following these treatments and cycles between original and deformed shapes, on heating and cooling, while crystal structures cycle between parent phase and detwinned structures.  It is well known that twinning and detwinning reactions play a considerable role in memory behavior of the shape memory materials. Thermal induced martensitic transformation is lattice-distorting phase transformation and occurs as martensite variants with the cooperative movement of atoms in <110>- type directions on {110}-type planes of austenite matrix which is basal plane or stacking plane for martensite, by means of shear-like mechanism.  In these alloys, parent austenite phase structures have greater crystallographic symmetry than that of the low-temperature product phase.

These alloys exhibit another property called superelasticity, which is operated by mechanically stressing and releasing the material at a constant temperature in parent phase region. Material is deformed at a constant temperature in parent phase region and recovers original shape upon releasing, like standard elastic materials. This behavior is called mechanical memory or superelasticity. Superelasticity is the result of stress-induced martensitic transformation, with which ordered parent phase structures turn into the detwinned structure, and performed in non-linear way. Loading and unloading paths are different, and cycling loop reveals energy dissipation.   

Copper based alloys exhibit this property in metastable β-phase region. Lattice invariant shears are not uniform in these alloys, and the ordered parent phase structures martensitically undergo the complex layered structures on cooling. These structures can be described by different unit cells as 9R or 18R depending on the stacking sequences on the close-packed planes of the ordered lattice.

In the present contribution, x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy studies were carried out on two copper based CuZnAl and CuAlMn alloys. X-ray diffraction profiles and electron diffraction patterns of these alloys exhibit super lattice reflections inherited from parent phase due to the displacive character of transformation.   X-ray diffractograms taken in a long time interval show that diffraction angles and intensities of diffraction peaks change with the aging time at room temperature. This result reveals a new transformation in diffusive manner.

Ecological restoration is the recovery of degraded ecosystem. The hypothesis of the present research was, ‘retaining the natural habitat fragments in the urban areas can be proactive step to ecological restoration’. The study was taken up in Panaji, the capital city of Goa (India), an important tourist destination on the world map. Panaji is studded with all kinds of modern amenities and simultaneously the city has several diverse natural habitat fragments such as forest, grassland, wetland, mangrove, paddy field, beach; and man-made habitats like monoculture plantation and parks. The diversity of birds was studied and the results revealed more than100 bird species in Panaji. Grassland supported the highest bird diversity including the migrants such as Glossy Ibis, Painted Stork, Adjutant stork and Woolly necked Stork. Generalist birds, commonly seen in urban areas were sighted breeding in the city. In the present study it was observed that the city with natural habitat fragments supported rich bird diversity, thus indicating healthy environment. Hence retaining natural habitat fragments in the urban areas can be a proactive step to ecological restoration. Sustainable development and prevention of ecological degradation can be done by retaining natural habitat fragments in the urban areas.