Sameena Mumtaz

In Asian and African countries, the state of economic globalization has been distinct from developed countries since the 1980s. Existing literature focused mainly on trade in forest goods, but this study focused on trade and trade adjustment in Asian and African countries on forest cover change dynamics. To this end, we used Fully Modified Least Square (FMOLS) and Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (DOLS) estimators to investigate the impact of trade and adjustment of trade structure on forest transition in Asian and African panels over the period 1990-2016. Our findings show that trade and trade adjustment indicators such as the percentage of non-primary goods in total exports (PNPEXP), total exports of manufacturing and service goods (TEXP), imports of forest goods (IMFG), and imports of agricultural goods (IMAG) have a positive and significant impact on forest cover in Asian and African countries. The causality test results also confirm that unidirectional causality runs from forest cover to PNPEXP, TEXP, IMAG, and IMFG. Bi-directional causality is found between IMFG and IMAG. We can conclude that Asian and African countries can improve their forest cover by adopting modern trade and trade adjustment strategies.

Plant species are distributed in different types of habitats, forming different communities driven by different sets of environmental variables. Here, we assessed potential plant communities along an altitudinal gradient and their associations with different environmental drivers in the unexplored Manoor Valley (Lesser Himalaya), Pakistan. We have implemented various ecological techniques and evaluated phytosociological attributes in three randomly selected 50 m-transects within each stand (a total of 133) during different seasons for four years (2015–2018). This phytosociological exploration reported 354 plant species representing 93 different families. The results revealed that the Therophytic life form class dominated the flora, whereas Nanophyll dominated the leaf size spectra. There were a total of twelve plant communities identified, ranging from the lowest elevations to the alpine meadows and cold deserts. The maximum number of species were found in Cedrus–Pinus–Parrotiopsis community (197 species), in the middle altitudinal ranges (2292–3168 m). Our results showed that at high altitudes, species richness was reduced, whereas an increase in soil nutrients was linked to progression in vegetation indicators. We also found different clusters of species with similar habitats. Our study clearly shows how altitudinal variables can cluster different plant communities according to different microclimates. Studies such as ours are paramount to better understanding how environmental factors influence ecological and evolutionary aspects.

In this study, iron oxide (Fe₃O₄) was coated with ZrO₂, and doped with three rare earth elements((Y/La/Ce), and a multi-staged rare earth doped zirconia adsorbent was prepared by using uniform design U₁₄, Response Surface methodology, and orthogonal design, to remove As³⁺ and As⁵⁺ from the aqueous solution. Based on the results of TEM, EDS, XRD, FTIR, and N₂-adsorption desorption test, the best molar ratio of Fe₃O₄:TMAOH:Zirconium butoxide:Y:La:Ce was selected as 1:12:11:1:0.02:0.08. The specific surface area and porosity was 263 m²/g, and 0.156 cm³/g, respectively. The isothermal curves and fitting equation parameters show that Langmuir model, and Redlich Peterson model fitted well. As per calculations of the Langmuir model, the highest adsorption capacities for As³⁺ and As⁵⁺ ions were recorded as 68.33 mg/g, 84.23 mg/g, respectively. The fitting curves and equations of the kinetic models favors the quasi second order kinetic model. Material regeneration was very effective, and even in the last cycle the regeneration capacities of both As³⁺ and As⁵⁺ were 75.15%, and 77.59%, respectively. Adsorption and regeneration results suggest that adsorbent has easy synthesis method, and reusable, so it can be used as a potential adsorbent for the removal of arsenic from aqueous solution.