Pecologix

A paper by John Kang’ara and Josiah Gitari, animal nutritionists at KARI, concludes that Opuntia species — the prickly pear or paddle cacti — have extreme tolerance to drought and remain succulent and easily digestible even in times of extreme water shortages, which makes them an excellent source of water and nutrition in harsh conditions.They [...]

The Desert Aqua-Net Plan is a concept for making use of the desert, which currently accounts for some one-third of the Earth’s total land area.According to this idea, multiple manmade lakes will be created in depressed areas of deserts, after which artificial islands will be built on the lakes. Filled with seawater introduced through canals, [...]

The most detailed national vegetation U.S. land-cover map to date has been released by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The map will enable conservation professionals to identify places in the country with sufficient habitat to support wildlife. “These data are critical for determining the status of biodiversity, as baseline data for assessing climate change impacts, [...]

Of all China’s environmental woes, the biggest threat to livelihoods and food security may be looming water shortages. China’s freshwater resources amount to 2220 cubic meters per person, just a quarter of the world average. For years, the central government focused on declining river flows and rising pollution, largely ignoring what has now become an [...]

Effective water management is critical for social welfare and ecosystem health. Nevertheless, information necessary to meaningfully assess sustainable water use is incomplete. In particular, little information is available on supply chain or indirect water use for the production of goods and services in the United States. We estimate a vector of water withdrawals for all [...]

Meeting the food needs of Africa’s growing population over the next half-century will require technologies that significantly improve rural livelihoods at minimal environmental cost. These technologies will likely be distinct from those of the Green Revolution, which had relatively little impact in sub-Saharan Africa; consequently, few such interventions have been rigorously evaluated. This paper analyzes [...]

Fly ash (FA)—a coal combustion residue of thermal power plants has been regarded as a problematic solid waste all over the world. The conventional disposal methods for FA lead to degradation and contamination of the arable land. However, several studies proposed that FA can be used as a soil-additive that may improve physical, chemical and [...]