The pollution of the soil and water due to accidental/anthropogenic release of complex hydrocarbons has been a serious environmental problem all over the world.Current study focused on preparation of biochar from fruit and vegetable waste and sewage sludge and its application for bioremediation of diesel polluted soil. Biochar prepared was physio chemically characterized by pH, CEC, FTIR, SEM, EDX, XRD, surface area and pore analysis, proximate analysis, elemental analysis, nutrient analysis and thermogravimetric analysis. Study was conducted at pilot scale. Both types of biochar was applied in diesel polluted soil in a pot experiment in combination with cow dung to evaluate their relative efficacy in bioremediation. Two set ups were run in parallel. In one set up amendments were applied on naturally contaminated soils while in second setup artificially contaminated soil was used. The diesel degradation was estimated by standard curve, FTIR and Gas chromatography.Physicochemical parameters like pH, EC, total carbon, total nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium in soil were analyzed during treatment.Microbiological analysis was performed by CFU count and dehydrogenase activity. Soil microbial diversity was analyzed by Illumina 16S RNA sequencing. Analytical characterization of biochar depicted its crystalline nature with presence of carbon nanotubes and circular pores. Both types of biochar were aromatic, nutrient rich and thermostable materials. Higher percentage yield and ash content was obtained for sludge biochar while high fraction of fixed carbon was recorded in fruit/vegetable waste biochar. Fruit/vegetable waste biochar exhibited larger BET surface area of 52.50m2/g as compared to sludge biochar having surface area of 46.85m2/g. Results of diesel bioremediation studies showed that soil amended with biochar not only increased the soil pH, EC, nutrients and carbon content but also promoted the degradation of hydrocarbons. In Set up 1 diesel oil degradation efficiency recorded was up to 72.27±0.50% for fruit/vegetable waste biochar and 75.63±0.351% for sludge biochar. Highest removal efficiency was for SDN treatment with 82.86±0.60% following VDN treatment with removal capacity of 78.51±0.38%. In Set up 2 having artificially contaminated soil removal efficiency was recorded higher in both VDA and SDA with 76.23±0.42% and 73.24±0.21% while in treatments VA and SA it was 65.28±0.44% and 68.89±0.63% respectively. Highest microbial count and dehydrogenase activity was recorded in treatments having sludge biochar along with cow dung in both Set up 1 and in Set up 2. Microbial study of SDN treatment showing highest bioremediation efficiency indicated the presence of 27 different phyla with predominance of Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria contributing 29% and 19% to total bacterial community. Biochar amendment into soil to degrade hydrocarbons is very important consideration for research purposes and land applications as well. Another study was conducted with application of biochar for soil fertility and crop productivity purposes. In modern agriculture practices, application of biochar for improving soil fertility, plant growth and agriculture output is gaining great deal of attention. Both fruit/vegetable waste biochar and sludge biochar were applied separately and in combination to analyze their effect on wheat growth. Results proved that wheat growth and biomass production was highest at 0.5% concentration of biochar mixture while highest microbial count was observed with 1% sludge biochar. Promising wheat growth and shift in relative abundance of microbial community could be resulted from improvement in soil parameters such EC, total nitrogen and carbon along with phosphorous and potassium content. Our results conclude that the biochar amendment in soil at optimum level improve soil properties and stimulate soil microflora which in turn improves the agricultural performance of soil.
پروفیسر لیفر سڈگ پروفیسر لیفر سڈگ سابق پروفیسر کیمیا سڈنی یونیورسٹی آسٹریلیا نے تھوڑے دن ہوئے کہ وفات پائی، اور مرنے کے بعد ۴۶ ہزار گنی کی گراں قدر رقم چھوڑ گئے اور یہ ساری رقم وصیت کے ذریعہ سے رفاہِ عام کے مختلف کاموں کے لئے وقف کرگئے جس کی تفصیل یہ ہے، ۲۵۰۰ گنی خاص شہر سڈنی کے لئے جس کے نفع سے دو علمی انعام دیئے جائیں گے، ۱۵۰۰ کیمبرج یونیورسٹی کے مسیحی کالج کے لیے، ۱۰۰۰ گنی معدنیات ملکی کے مدرسہ کے لیے ، ۵۰۰ گنی نیوسوٹ ویلز کی ملکی انجمن کے لئے اس طریقہ سے ساری دولت آسٹریلیا کی مختلف انجمنوں اور لندن کی کیمیاوی انجمن کو دے دی۔ (شاہ معین الدین ندوی، اپریل ۱۹۲۸ء)
In globalization and information age, Sustainable development is a contemporary issue to protect future generations. Islam is not only a religion, but also a guideline for whole life and is based on divine principles of Shari‘a that also address sustainable development to mankind. Indeed many values and principles that have been central to Islam are inclined towards prosperity of people and development of society. On other hand Industrial revolution brought a huge destruction on the earth because in capitalist system people are self concerned rather than society. Islamic social responsibility teaches lesson of unity and called a mankind an ummah (community) and a moderate ummah, who is not allowed to make any mischief on the earth. Everything on the earth is gifted by Allah to the mankind and man is the deputy of Allah and become a steward (khal┘fah) for the earth, now it is his responsibility to save the world from any harm. The main objective of this research is to present the principles and applications of Islam in sustainable development debate especially on ecological aspect.
The seeds of one hundred maize inbred lines collected from various research organizations were planted in two sets, one under normal and the other under high temperature conditions in a plastic tunnel for the purpose of screening against heat at reproductive stage. Based on the actual and relative values for leaf temperature, cell membrane thermo-stability, stomatal conductance, transpiration rate, leaf firing, kernels per ear, 100-grain weight and grain yield per plant, one heat tolerant (ZL-11271) and one heat susceptible (R-2304-2) parents were selected and crossed to develop six basic generations comprised parents (P1, P2), hybrid (F1) and segregating generations (BC1, BC2, F2) in subsequent cropping seasons. All these generations were then evaluated under both normal (field) and heat-stressed (plastic tunnel) conditions using factorial randomized complete block design with three replications. The recorded data under both the conditions on various morphological and physiological plant traits were analyzed in nested block design for one way, two way and partitioned analysis of variances which revealed statistically significant differences (P≤0.01-0.05) for all the characters except anthesis-silking interval. Generation mean analysis of plant traits recorded under normal conditions revealed both additive and dominance genetic effects alongwith epistatic interactions for leaf temperature, cell membrane thermo-stability, stomatal conductance, leaf firing, plant height, ear leaf area, days to maturity, ear length, kernels per ear, 100-grain weight and grain yield per plant. For all these traits except stomatal conductance, dominance effects were more pronounced than additive estimates. Only additive genetic effects alongwith epistatic interactions were revealed for transpiration rate, days to tasseling and days to silking under normal conditions. Days to silking and days to maturity had dominance genetic effects with no epistatic interaction while traits like leaf temperature, cell membrane thermo-stability, stomatal conductance, transpiration rate, leaf firing, plant height, days to tasseling, ear leaf area, ear length, kernels per ear, 100-grain weight and grain yield per plant revealed both additive and dominance genetic effects alongwith epistatic interactions under heat-stressed conditions. Additive genetic effects were greater in magnitude for leaf temperature, cell membrane thermo-stability and stomatal conductance while estimates of dominance genetic effects were higher in case of transpiration rate, leaf firing, plant height, ear leaf area, ear length, kernels per ear, 100-grain weight and grain yield per plant under heat-stressed regime. Estimates of broad sense heritability were higher than that of narrow sense heritability while estimates of narrow sense heritability for infinity generation were greater than its F2 generation for all the traits. Considering the estimates of heritability and genetic advance at once suggested that only simple selections might be enough for further improvement of traits such as cell membrane thermo-stability, stomatal conductance, transpiration rate, leaf firing, ear length, kernels per ear and grain yield per plant under both the condition. Grain yield per plant had positive and significant association with stomatal conductance, transpiration rate, ear length and kernels per ear while negative but significant with leaf temperature, cell membrane thermo-stability, leaf firing and 100-grain weight at both genotypic and phenotypic levels under both normal and heat-stressed conditions. Ear leaf area exhibited positive and negative association only at genotypic level with grain yield under normal and heat-stressed conditions, respectively. It can be concluded that traits like cell membrane thermo-stability, ear leaf area and kernels per ear may be given priority in breeding strategies for achieving improvement in maize grain yield under high temperature circumstances.