Conference Book of Abstracts - Taita Taveta University College

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Biodiversity is usually defined as the variety and variability of living organisms and theecosystems in which they occur. Although biodiversity loss has been given prominence all overthe world in the last 2-3 decades, most of the conservation efforts have been directed to largeplants and animals. The soil represents a favourable habitat for microorganisms and is inhabitedby a wide range of them (Davet and Francis, 2000). Invisible to the naked eye, soil is one of themost diverse habitats on earth with the most diverse assemblages of living organisms (Giller etal., 1997). Soil biodiversity although huge, it is largely unstudied and unexplored.These soil microorganisms are very important as almost every chemical transformation takingplace in soil involves active contributions from each of them. In particular, they play an activerole in soil fertility as a result of their involvement in the cycle of nutrients like carbon andnitrogen, which are required for plant growth. For example, soil microorganisms are responsiblefor the decomposition of the organic matter entering the soil and therefore in the recycling ofnutrients in soil. Soil organisms have particularly received little attention appearing insignificantdespite their overall value in soil ecology and contribution to the maintenance of soilproductivity. Soil biodiversity is under threat from anthropogenic processes such as land usechange (European commission, 2010). Land use change leads to soil degradation andconsequently to loss of biodiversity and more specifically to soil biodiversity.A study was undertaken to assess the effect of land use change on selected soil organisms atEmbu and Taita Taveta benchmark sites in Kenya. Soil samples were collected from georeferencedpoints located in natural forest, plantation forest, tea, coffee, napier grass, agroforestry,fallow, maize/beans intercrop and land under horticultural crop production. The soilorganisms were grouped into three main categories based on their morphology and sizes asfollows; microbes, mesofauna and macrofauna.A general decline in diversity and abundance of beneficial microbes was observed with increasein land use intensity where richness and abundance of Trichoderma with soil under napier grassand coffee having the highest and lowest abundance at the two benchmark sites, respectively(Sheila et al., 2009). Land use intensification had no significant effect on arbuscular mycorrhizalfungi (AMF) populations and their diversity. Results also confirm that land use has a significanteffect on the diversity of rhizobia. It was also observed that the frequency of isolating nematodedestroying fungi (NDFs) increased with increased in land use intensity (Wachira et al., 2009).An increase in abundance of plant pathogenic microbes was associated with intensity of land usewhere the abundance of Fusarium and Pythium spp.was significatlty (P
Davet Pierre and Rouxel Francis, 2000. Detection and Isolation of Soil Fungi. Science Publishers, Enfield NewHampshire, USA. 188 pp.European Commission - DG ENV. Soil biodiversity: functions, threats and tools for policy makers, February 2010.Giller, K.E., Cadisch, G., Ehaliotis, C., Sakala, W.D. and Mafongoya, P.L. 1997. Building soil nitrogen capital inAfrica. In: Buresh, R.J., Sanchez, P.A. and Calhoun, F. (eds). Replenishing Soil Fertility in Africa. SSSA Specialpublication Number 51 pp. 151-192.Sheila A. Okoth, P. Okoth, P.M. Wachira and H. Roimen, 2009. Spatial distribution of Trichoderma spp. In Embuand Taita regions, Kenya. Tropical and Subtropical Agro ecosystems. Vol. 11 No. 2. 291 – 302.Wachira, P.M. and Sheila Okoth, 2009. Use of nematode destroying fungi as indicators of land disturbance in TaitaTaveta, Kenya. Tropical and Subtropical Agro ecosystems. Vol. 11 No. 2. 313 – 321.The growth, seed yield and oil content of linseed (linum usitatissimum l.) as influenced byvareity and nitrogen applicationLilian W. Kariuki 1 , Peter W. Masinde 1 , Arnold Onyango 2 , Kenneth Ogila 3 , Githiri Mwangi 11. Department of Horticulture, JKUAT, 2. Department of Food Science Technology, JKUAT 3. Department ofZoology, JKUAT. P.O. Box 6200 – 00200, NairobiLinseed is both a fibre and oil crop. Its oil has various uses and is known to contain omega-6 andomega-9 essential fatty acids. Linseed can therefore be incorporated in fish feed to raise theomega-3 fatty acid oils in fish. However, the crop has remained largely neglected in Kenya,despite it potential health benefits. An experiment was conducted to determine the influence oflocally available varieties and nitrogen application on the growth, yield and oil content oflinseed. The experiment was set up in a split plot design with five linseed accessions („Summit‟,„S19/21‟, „Raja‟, „Jawhar‟ and „S19/12‟) as sup-plots and three fertilizer regimes (0Kg N/ha(control), 75Kg N/ha and 150Kg N/ha) as main plots. The experiment was replicated threetimes. Plant height, number of leaves, number of tillers and the plant‟s dry weight were notsignificantly different between the accessions as well as at different nitrogen concentrations.Jawhar started flowering earliest while Summit was the last to start flowering. Higher nitrogentreatment resulted in higher incidences of lodging of plants. Maturity of plants was dependent onthe level of nitrogen applied with the plant under control maturing faster than plants treated with150KgN/ha. The results indicate equal performance of the accessions in terms of growth andyield. Whereas the application of nitrogen did not influence the growth and yield significantly,its effect on the oil content needs to be investigated.Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies in the Coastal Region: The Coastaland Marine Ecosystem Perspectives.Maarifa Mwakumanya 1 , Coordinator, RCE – Pwani University College, P.O. Box 195-80108, KILIFI.maarifaali@yahoo.com1
Page 1: HUMBOLDT-KOLLEGon“The Future of B
Page 4 and 5: Climate Change Mitigation and Adapt
Page 6 and 7: Director, KWS11:00-11.30 Microbial
Page 8 and 9: Rapporteur: Dr Eunice Githae, SEUCO
Page 10 and 11: The Soda Lakes of Kenya have attrac
Page 13 and 14: Development and Assessment of Techn
Page 15 and 16: Random stratified sampling techniqu
Page 17 and 18: while from Kisii had the lowest cya
Page 19 and 20: Klingner, DE (2000). The Role of Pr
Page 21 and 22: ased study of archaeal community st
Page 23: embryos failed in transient GUS exp
Page 27 and 28: Kenya and the Eastern African regio
Page 29 and 30: emarkable substrate diversity and s
Page 31: Establishing a “Microbial-Plant
Page 34 and 35: Notably though, the Kenya coastal f
Page 36 and 37: have high micronutrient content and
Page 38 and 39: Bioprospecting for microorganisms s
Page 40 and 41: selection of new plant species, var
Page 42 and 43: web presence through sharing of res
Page 44 and 45: Key words: globalisation of researc
Page 46 and 47: establishment in relation to other
Page 48 and 49: Are mangroves sustainable as peri-u
Page 50 and 51: The eastern Africa biodiversity for
Page 52 and 53: These results can be used to better
Page 54: List of Participants

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