BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

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The forests of Pakistan replicate plentiful climatic, physiographic and edaphic differences in the country and these forests face a serious problem of deforestation. Geographic information system (GIS) techniques and remote sensing (RS) from satellite platforms offer a best way to identify those areas of deforestation, and thus a GIS and RS based study was conducted in tehsil Barawal, district Dir (U) to analyze forest cover change. The main objectives of the study were to: 1) identify different classes of land use and land cover, and its spatial distribution in the study area; 2) determine the trend, nature, location and magnitude of forest cover change; and 3) prepare maps of forest-cover change in different time periods in the study area. To assess the objectives remote sensing and GIS techniques were utilized. A supervised image classification technique was applied on Landsat 5 satellite images of 2000 and 2012. Five main classes such as agriculture, forest, barren land, snow and water were identified. The results showed that the area of forest, barren land, agriculture, water and snow in year 2000 was 49.54%, 43.38%, 5.19%, 1.40% and 0.49% and the area in 2012 was 37.17%, 41.36%, 12.69%, 5.05% and 3.72% respectively. Furthermore 2.02% decrease in barren land, 12.37% decrease in forest and 7.5% increase in agriculture land were identified. Due to high deforestation rate and increased agricultural activities, it is recommended

Organic materials from various sources have been commonly adopted as soil amendments to improve crop productivity. Phosphorus deficiency and fixation in alkaline calcareous soils drives a reduction in crop production. A two-year field experiment was conducted to evaluate the impact of rock phosphate enriched composts and chemical fertilizers both individually and in combination with plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) on wheat productivity and soil chemical and biological and biochemical properties. The present study demonstrates significant increments in crop agronomic and physiological parameters with Pseudomonas sp. inoculated RPEC1 (rock phosphate + poultry litter + Pseudomonas sp.) over the un-inoculated untreated control. However, among all other treatments i.e., RPEC2 (rock phosphate + poultry litter solubilized with Proteus sp.), RPC (rock phosphate + poultry litter), HDP (half dose inorganic P from Single Super Phosphate-SSP 18% P2O5) and SPLC (poultry litter only); RPEC1 remained the best by showing increases in soil chemical properties (available phosphorus, nitrate nitrogen, extractable potassium), biochemical properties (alkaline phosphatase activity) and biological properties (microbial biomass carbon and microbial biomass phosphorus). Economic analysis in terms of Value Cost Ratio (VCR) showed that the seed inoculation with Pseudomonas sp. in combination with RPEC1 gave maximum VCR (3.23:1) followed by RPEC2 (2.61:1), FDP (2.37:1), HDP (2.05:1) and SPLC (2.03:1). It is concluded that inoculated rock phosphate (RP) enriched compost (RPEC1) can be a substitute to costly chemical fertilizers and seed inoculation with Pseudomonas sp. may further increase the efficiency of composts.

The moist temperate forests in Northern Pakistan are home to a variety of flora and fauna that are pivotal in sustaining the livelihoods of the local communities. In these forests, distribution and richness of vegetation, especially that of medicinal plants, is rarely reported. In this study, we carried out a vegetation survey in District Balakot, located in Northeastern Pakistan, to characterize the diversity of medicinal plants under different canopies of coniferous forest. The experimental site was divided into three major categories (viz., closed canopy, open spaces, and partial tree cover). A sampling plot of 100 m2 was established on each site to measure species diversity, dominance, and evenness. To observe richness and abundance, the rarefaction and rank abundance curves were plotted. Results revealed that a total of 45 species representing 34 families were available in the study site. Medicinal plants were the most abundant (45%) followed by edible plants (26%). Tree canopy cover affected the overall growth of medicinal plants on the basis of abundance and richness. The site with partial canopy exhibited the highest diversity, dominance, and abundance compared to open spaces and closed canopy. These findings are instrumental in identifying the wealth of the medicinal floral diversity in the northeastern temperate forest of Balakot and the opportunity to sustain the livelihoods of local communities with the help of public/private partnership.

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Seeds of 250 plants from M 1 generation of three chickpea genotypes viz, Noor 91 (white), Punjab 91 (brown) and C 141 (black) at 40, 50 and 60 Kr separately and with gibberellic acid (GA 3) along with control were grown to raise the M 2 generation. The effects on 100-seed weight, grain yield, biological yield, harvest index, days to flowering and maturity in M 2 generation were highly significant (p<0.01) within genotypes, treatments and also for their interaction. Statistically significant increase in 100-seed weight was observed with the combine treatment at 40 Kr while it was decreased at 60 Kr as compared with gamma irradiation. Grain yield was significantly increased with gamma irradiation however, stimulation was recorded with the application of GA 3. Biological yield was decreased while, harvest index was increased with both types of treatments. However, more harvest index was recorded with combine treatment. Days to flowering were increased at 40 and 60 Kr with gamma irradiation while, decreased at 40 and 50 Kr with the combine treatment. Days to maturity were decreased with both the treatments.

The current study was undertaken to evaluate the responses of okra to salinity and to study the beneficial effects of silicon and gibberellic acid on yield and ionic attributes of okra under salinity stress. For this purpose, a pot experiment was conducted at the Horticultural Farm of the Department of Horticulture, The University of Haripur, Pakistan. Seeds of the okra cultivar ‘Sabz Pari’ were sown in pots. The experiment was established in a complete randomized design with factorial layout and included a total of 14 treatments deriving from the combination of two factors: two salinity levels and seven treatments with silicon or gibberellic acid. Okra seeds were pretreated with either 0, 50, 75 or 100 mg/L of gibberellic acid and then planted into pots. After germination plants were subjected to 0 mmol (control) or 50 mmol salinity; silicon (in the form of potassium silicate) was applied to plants exogenously at the rate of 2 mmol, 3 mmol, or 4 mmol. The following parameters were measured: number of days to flowering, pod length, pod weight, number of pods per plant and pod yield per plant, and the contents of Na+, Cl-, K+, and proline in the leaves. The results revealed that under 50 mmol NaCl salinity okra plants treated with 100 mg/L of GA3 had the shortest time to flowering (48.3 days) and the lowest Na+ ion content (14.9 mg/L) and Cl- ion content (9.8 mg/L), while in these plants we measured an increased pod weight (18.9 g), pod length (14.6 cm), number of pod per plant (22.6), pod yield per plant (1225 g), K+ ion and proline contents (18.9 mg/g and 28.8 μmol/g, respectively). Hence, this study allowed to conclude that the highest salinity level reduced the yield and altered the ionic status of okra plants, whereas GA3 and Si lowered the toxic effects of salinity and 100 mg/L GA3 along with 4 mmol silicon can be used in order to reduce salinity toxic effects