Crude oil spills as a result of natural disasters or extraction and transportation operations are common nowadays. Oil spills have adverse effects on both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and pose a threat to human health. This study have been concerned with studying the capability of six fungal species (Curvularia brachyspora, Penicillium chrysogenum, Scopulariopsis brevicaulis, Cladosporium sphaerospermum, Alternaria alternata, and Stemphylium botryosum) and three fungal consortia (FC), FC1 (P. chrysogenum and C. brachyspora), FC2 (S. brevicaulis and S. botryosum), and FC3 (S. brevicaulis, S. botryosum, and C. sphaerospermum), to remediate petroleum hydrocarbons (PHs). Qualitative and quantitative changes in polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and saturated hydrocarbons (SH) mixtures and the patterns of PHs degradation have been examined using HPLC and GC. Studying the GC chromatogram of C. sphaerospermum revealed severe degradation of SHs exhibited by this species, and the normal-paraffin and isoparaffin degradation percentage have been valued 97.19% and 98.88%, respectively. A. alternata has shown the highest significant (at
P
˂ 0.05) PAH degradation percent reaching 72.07%; followed by P. chrysogenum, 59.51%. HPLC data have revealed that high-molecular-weight PAH percent/total PAHs decreased significantly from 98.94% in control samples to 68.78% in samples treated with A. alternata. FC1 and FC2 consortia have exhibited the highest significant PH deterioration abilities than did the individual isolates, indicating that these fungal consortia exhibited positive synergistic effects. The study supports the critical idea of the potential PAH and SH biodegradation as a more ecologically acceptable alternative to their chemical degradation.
Under a changing climate, harvesting management and exploiting the genotypic divergence of Egyptian clover cultivars offers a biologically viable solution to sustainably boost the milk productivity of dairy animals. Two multi-season field trials were executed under semi-arid conditions whereby the first experiment aimed to assess the potential of Egyptian clover cultivars (Berseem Agaiti, Anmol and SB-11) for nutritional quality attributes and the digestibility of green forage and hay, forage palatability and milk productivity of buffaloes fed on hay. In the second field investigation, new promising line, SB-11, was tested for seed production potential under varying dates of the last harvesting regimes (10, 20 and 30 March along with 9 April and 19 April) owing to a sharp hike in temperature. In terms of the nutritive value of green forage and hay, SB-11 remained superior for recording the maximum crude protein (CP), ash, fat and nitrogen-free extract except dry matter (DM) content that was exhibited by the Anmol cultivar. Additionally, SB-11 remained unmatched by giving a minimum crude fiber (CF), while Berseem Agaiti yielded the lesser nutritive forage by producing 4% and 2% higher CF than SB-11 and Anmol, respectively. Moreover, SB-11 recorded the maximum digestibility of CP and DM. Furthermore, SB-11 exhibited a 6% and 9% higher palatability along with 8% and 11% higher milk production than Anmol and Berseem Agaiti, respectively. Additionally, 20 March surpassed the rest of the cutting dates by exhibiting 7%, 23%, 50% and 207% more seed yield than 10 March, 30 March, 9 April and 19 April, respectively, indicating quite a pronounced effect of the last cutting management on the seed production potential of Egyptian clover. The research findings suggest SB-11 as a promising genotype for bridging the nutritive gap of quality feed (forage and hay) for buffaloes along with addressing the seed production challenge of Egyptian clover.
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