Abstract Fires are often used as a management tool in both game reserves and rangelands to manipulate food availability for grazing animals. After fires, large areas of the landscape are quickly covered with nutritious new regrowth, which grazers move into and utilise as a food resource. The effect of this change in animal grazing patterns on the grass communities is not yet well understood. Certain grass communities depend on heavy, continuous grazing for their persistence: they are out-comp...
ABSTRA.CT The studies in this thesis recognise the key role of fire as a factor which has shaped the life-histories of plants in fire-prone mediterranean shrublands. Fire regimes are not simply products of the abiotic elements of climate and ignition sources. The biotic component makes a significant contribution because community structure and processes like litter fall determine fuel loads, and fuel distribution, and will determine properties such as fire recurrence intervals and shapes and ...
ABSTRACT The Southern Margin forest type in Ghana now occur in small forest fragments due to the overharvesting of plant resources for purpose of food, medicine, construction and fuelwood. The proposed Apra Hills Forest Reserve is one of the remaining forest fragments of this forest type in southern Ghana although there are no previous in depth studies to support effective forest management of its plant resources. In order to achieve the objectives of this study, plant diversity study and eth...
A B S TRACT i v Research was carried out to de v e l o p an effe c t i v e i n o c u l u m carrier of the nodule bacterium, Rhizobium sp., for the inoculation of seeds of bambara groundnut [Vigna subterranea (L.) V e r d e , c o m b . nov. = Voandzeia subterranea (L. ) T h o u a r s ] f r o m a local material. Five out of 16 strains of Rhizobium sp. isolated from soils of legume farms at eight localities within a r a d i u s of 180 k m f r o m L e g o n w e r e u s e d in e x p e r i m e n t ...
ABSTRACT Croton membranaceus is a herb with useful medicinal properties. The leaves, bark and roots are used for the treatment of diverse ailments. The harvesting of the plant by many traditional medical practioners from the wild for the treatment of diseases in the country without replacement exposes the plant to possible extinction in the near future. The only means of propagating the plant is by use of seeds which is relatively slow. Thus, an alternative mode of propagation is needed to de...
ABSTRACT Conidia of Cercospora arachidicola are straw-coloured or olivaceous, subfusiform, multicellular, 28.3-68.1(jm in lengths. They contain 3-7 cells. They germinated in distilled water and at 85-100% R.H. The optimum pH for germination was 5.0-6.0; any cell of the conidium germinating produced only one germ tube. The germ tube commonly comes from the end cells with occasional germ tube emerging from one or two median cells. Pollen of Zea mays, glucose (1.0-8.0%) and peptone (0.1-2.0%) fa...
ABSTRACT Conidia of T. fructigena did not germinate at any relative humidity from zero to 10C% R.H. Germination in distilled water^was very poor, less than 2.0 per cent at the optimum temperature, 25 C. PDA encouraged 96.8 percentage germination at 25°C. The conidia germinated very poorly on PDA at 35°C and a temperature of 40 C killed the conidia in approximately 1 2 hours. T, Frutiger conidia would only survive in atmospheres of extremely high humidity. Best survival occurred at 10($ R.H...
ABSTRACT The morphological characteristics of three isolates of Sclerotium rolfsii from Aburi (AB), East Legon (EL) and Legon campus (LC) were studied on PDA at an incubation temperature of 28ºC. Radial growth of mycelia and the production of sclerotia were more pronounced in the East Legon (EL) and Legon campus (LC) isolates. When the red and white cormels of cocoyam (Xanthosoma sagittifolium) were inoculated with the various isolates of Sclerotium rolfsii, the white cormels were more resi...
ABSTRACT The study aimed at collecting, characterizing, storing and assessing the ethnobotanical uses of the African rice and its wild relatives collected from the Volta Region of Ghana. It also aimed at detecting the concentrations of mineral elements namely: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd) and arsenic (As) in soils of the different accessions collected. Seven accessions of rice were collected from paddy fields in fourte...
ABSTRACT Maize production in Ghana between 1984 and 1990 exceeded 500,000 metric tonnes per year except in 1985 where there was a shortfall to 395,000 metric tonnes. The unfavourable years of drought between 1981-1983 were attended by a sharp decline in maize production ( 140,000-333,200 metric tonnes ). The bulk of the national maize production was contributed by Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo, Eastern and Northern Regions. Maize husk available after removing cobs was commensurate with the total maize...
ABSTRACT The relationship between five randomly selected isolates of Aspergillus niger from naturally infected bulbs of shallot and two shallot cultivars (Allium ascalonicum L.) was investigated. The two cultivars were “Pale-brown” and “Pink”- named for the colours of their scale leaves. A. niger causes bulb rot of shallots which have important uses in food and traditional medicine in Ghana The relationship showed by the cultivars were similar in some aspects and different in many oth...
ABSTRACT Airborne pollen grains and fern spores (aeroflora) are some of the major causative agents of allergies. However, data gathering on composition and distribution of these aeroflora across Nigeria is incipient. The aim of this study is to monitor the aeroflora in Lagos metropolis and determine the allergenicity of dominant aeroflora. To achieve this, aerosampling was done in Surulere, Ebute-Metta, University of Lagos, Akoka (UNILAG), Bariga and Gbagada. Aerosamples were collected and a...
ABSTRACT Maize and soyabean are among the staples in the world. Their sustainable production through the use of synthetic fertilizer causes soil degradation and ground water contamination. An alternative means of boosting and sustaining the production of these staples through the use of rhizobium and mycorrhiza have been reported but there are contradictory reports on interactions between the two organisms. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the influence of Rhizobium japoni...
ABSTRACT Mushrooms such as Pleurotus, Vovariella and Auricularia species are cultivated for food and medicinal purposes in the world. However, cultivation of Auricularia in Nigeria is limited due to inadequate information on its characteristics, nutritional contents and cultivation requirements. Hence, this study was designed to characterise Auricularia species in Southwestern Nigeria and determine suitable substrates for their cultivation. Fifty-four samples of Auricularia species were rando...
ABSTRACT The quest to boost dietary protein production from readily available and affordable sources is ever increasing in developing countries. The indigenous edible Pleurotus species (oyster mushrooms), which grow naturally on wood wastes, are potential protein supplements. However, little information is available on the usage of selected tropical trees for optimum mushroom cultivation. Therefore, this research was designed to investigate the growth and yield of oyster mushrooms on sawdust ...