Ayman El-Ghamry

Climate change is one of the most important global issues that impacts all our life sides. Growing crops and their productivity also are influenced by changing in the climate and climatic elements. Growing tea in non-traditional regions like Egypt could be considered a challenge due to the specific climatic and soil requirements for growing and production. However, with careful planning and experimentation, it might be possible to establish tea cultivation in such conditions. So, a lysimeter trial was conducted as an exploratory experiment aiming to assess tea cultivation performance in both sandy and clayey soil. Additionally, a separate field trial was carried out to evaluate tea growth in clayey soil along with applied organic fertilizer (chicken manure). The findings revealed that, under the lysimeter trial, tea plants exhibited robust growth on both sandy and clayey soil. Various parameters, including plant height, fresh and dry weights, leaf area, chlorophyll content, and leaf N, P, K levels, indicated superior performance on sandy soil compared to clayey soil. In the field trial, notable superiority was observed in plants grown on the organic medium containing chicken manure over those grown on clayey soil without such supplementation. These outcomes suggest that climate changes could potentially transform Egypt into a favorable region for tea cultivation. More studies are needed to establish a complete program of cultivation of tea including the water and nutrient requirements.

Background Selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) were synthesized using a green method with Pediastrum boryanum extract as the reducing and capping agent. Objectives The algal extract and green synthesized SeNPs were characterized for their morphological characters and biological efficacy. Methods Characterization was conducted using UV-vis spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and zeta potential analysis. Results TEM revealed spherical and tetragonal SeNPs with sizes ranging from 72.16-89.45 nm. FTIR spectroscopy confirmed the presence of functional groups from the algal extract on the SeNPs surfaces, indicating their role as capping agents. Phytochemical analysis showed that the extract had higher total phenolics (51.114 mg GAE/g) and flavonoids (19.225 mg QE/g) than SeNPs (27.154 and 9.931 mg/g, respectively). The extract also exhibited greater antioxidant activity than SeNPs in the 1,1-Diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging assay. Evaluation of antimicrobial effects against fish pathogens demonstrated broad-spectrum inhibitory activity for the algal extract against Aeromonas veronii, A. sobria, Streptococcus iniae, Edwardsiella ictaluri, and A. hydrophila (MIC 64-256 μg/mL). A brine shrimp lethality assay (BSLA) revealed potent dose-dependent cytotoxicity of both the extract (LC50 51.56 μg/mL) and SeNPs (LC50 11.88 μg/mL). Overall, this green synthesis method successfully produced stable SeNPs with enhanced bioactivities. Conclusions These results highlight the potential of the microalga P. boryanum as a sustainable nano-factory for the green synthesis of SeNPs with significant bioactive effects that warrant further pharmacological investigation.

The global exponential rise in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over the last few decades has triggered an urgent need to contextualize low-cost and evergreen technologies for restraining GHG production and enhancing soil carbon sink. GHGs can be mitigated via incorporating biochar into soil matrix to sequestrate the mineralized carbon in a stable form upon organic matter decomposition in soil. However, the efficiency of using biochar to offset GHG emissions from soil and terrestrial ecosystems is still debatable. Moreover, in the literature, biochar shows high functionality in restraining GHG emissions in short-term laboratory studies, but it shows minimal or negative impacts in field-scale experiments, leading to conflicting results. This paper synthesizes information on the ability of biochar to mitigate carbon dioxide (CO₂), nitrous oxide (N₂O), and methane (CH₄) emissions from soil and organic biomass, with an emphasis on cropland soils. The feedstock type, pyrolysis temperature, and application rate factors showed significant effects on controlling the effectiveness of biochar in restraining GHG emissions. Our study demonstrates that biochar, taken as a whole, can be seen as a powerful and easy-to-use tool for halting the rising tide of greenhouse gas emissions. Nonetheless, future research should focus on (i) identifying other indirect factors related to soil physicochemical characters (such as soil pH/EH and CaCO₃ contents) that may control the functionality of biochar, (ii) fabricating aged biochars with low carbon and nitrogen footprints, and (iii) functionalizing biologically activated biochars to suppress CO₂, CH₄, and N₂O emissions. Overall, our paradoxical findings highlight the urgent need to functionalize modern biochars with a high capacity to abate GHG emissions via locking up their release from soil into the carbonaceous lattice of biochar.

This research introduces a novel technology for reducing ordinary urea (OU) dissolution by developing double-coated urea (DCU) using phosphate rock (PR) as an outer layer to reduce its hydrolysis and sodium thiosulfate (STS) as an inner layer to inhibit the urease enzyme and nitrification process. Due to the double coating, the nitrogen content of DCU was lower than that of the OU (36.7% vs. 46.5%). The ultramorphological analysis using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicated that the controlled coating of urea, resulting from the outer layer of PR, was due to the adhesive effect of urea formaldehyde (UF), which was used as a glue. In addition, the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis of the DCU revealed its high degree of agglomeration. The mechanical hardness of DCU was higher compared to that of OU (1.38 vs. 1.08 kgf). The seven-day dissolution rate test showed that OU reached 100% dissolution on the fifth day. The rate of DCU, however, was significantly lower (32% dissolution in the seventh day). Cumulative NO3− and NH4+ losses from a clay soil sample reached 68.3% and 7.6%, respectively, with OU measuring 40.5% compared to 4.9% for DCU 70 days after application. Field experiments showed a significant improvement in the marketable yield and agronomic nitrogen efficiency (ANE) of maize grains and zucchini fruits fertilized with DCU. Furthermore, the macro and micronutrient concentrations in maize grains and zucchini fruits showed an increase in the plants fertilized with DCU. In summary, double coating can be introduced as a novel technique to control urea dissolution in soil.

The global production of mineral fertilizers suffers from several critics due the serious problems, which penetrated the environment causing direct and indirect troubles for human health. Thus, the sustainable alternative “like bio-nanofertilizers” for the mineral fertilizers, that protects and conserves the environment will be a global aim. The present investigation introduces a simple and a fully-automated technique for producing bio-nano-fertilizers from abundant green materials. These nano-fertilizers were produced using plant extracts as a protocol for the biosynthesis of nanoparticles based-fertilizers. The innovative device can work automatically without human intervention by programming its units to produce homogeneous nanoparticles. Three plant extracts (i.e., Nerium oleander, Azadirachta indica, and Cinnamomum camphora) were selected to produce nano selenium using this device, and the nano-products were further investigated using both zeta potential and transmission electron microscope (TEM). Further investigations including more nano-fertilizers will be published in the future with more details for different kinds of nutrients.

Bio- and nano-fertilizers are one of the most important tools in modern agriculture and agri-food as well as a driving economic force in the near future. Also, bio- and nano-fertilizers also play an important role as promising methods for increasing use efficiency of different water and land resources, reducing environmental pollutions as well. So, environment friendly biotechnological approaches may offer alternatives to chemical fertilizers. Phosphurus, K and Zn solubilizer microbes are the most important microbial traits in soil biogeochemical cycles and plant growth promotion. The biosynthesis of nanomaterials using bacteria, algae, yeast, fungi, actinomycetes and plants has led to a new area of research for the formation of inorganic nanoparticles as eco-friendly fertilizers. Now, use of nanofertilizers in plant nutrition is one of the major roles of nanotechnology in agriculture and soil sciences. Thus, the application of biosynthesized nanoparticles in agricultural sector may lead to sustainable development. Hence, this leads to sustainable agriculture through putting less inputs and generating less wastes, minimizing nutrient losses, and release nutrients at a proper rate for plant demand comparing with conventional farming. There is very slight difference between bio- and nano-fertilizers depending on their mechanisms in the soil and plant, application methods, effective rates of addition as well as their impact on the environment. However, both nano-and bio-fertilizers and their interaction are needed further studies. Therefore, this review will focus on the new insights and a comparison between both nano- and bio-fertilizers.

Field experiments were conducted in 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 winter seasons to study the effect of ammo acids (AA) and humic acids (HA) and their interactions in control of chocolate spot and rust diseases, growth enhancement, chemical changes, and chlorophyll content of faba bean plants. The maximum reduction of disease severity of chocolate spot at 55 days from planting was recorded with the interaction between AA plus HA at 1000 ppm each then HA at 1000 ppm, while, at 75 days the maximum reduction in both disease severity and disease incidence occurred by AA at 3000 ppm followed by the treatment of HA at 1000 ppm. HA at 3000 ppm followed by the interaction between AA l000 and HA 1000 ppm then the treatment with HA 2000 ppm were the most effective in reducing rust disease severity of faba bean plant. All morphological traits (plant height, no of branches and leaves plant-1) and yield components (pods No./plant and weight of 100 seed) as well as macronutrients content (N, P, K in seeds and straw) and chlorophyll content significantly increased by the application of AA (2000 ppm) interacted with HA (2000 ppm). The maximum plant seed yield per plant occurred under the application of AA plus HA (2000 ppm each) followed by AA (3000 ppm) then AA (1000 ppm). On the other hand, number of seeds pod-1 did not significantly affected. The present investigation recommended using AA at 1000 ppm and HA at I000 ppm as foliar application to decrease the damage of chocolate spot and rust diseases as well as improve growth and mineral content in addition the advantages as environmental safety and coast effective.