JESAM jumpstarts 2022 with new issue release

The Journal for Environmental Science and Management (JESAM) recently released its December 2021 issue (Volume 24 Number 2) featuring topics on landscape changes, bioremediation, biogeography, ecological restoration and policy reviews on nuclear energy and mining.

Two articles tackle landscape pattern changes covering the cases in Amazon forests and in China. One proposes two new single value indices for landscape fragmentation using Fragstats landscape metrices and compares it with the current indices. The other analyzes the changes in coastline length in Fujian Province in China from 1995 to 2015 using remote sensing and GIS technology. Spatial pattern analysis provides a wider understanding of the dynamic ecological processes and external factors affecting it in a specific temporal scale.

The issue also includes two articles on the use of biological treatment for waste management. One discusses the isolation and identification of bacteria and fungi involved in the composting process of cellulose present in municipal and agriculture waste. The other article probes the capability of indigenous bacterial consortium in biodegradation of carcinogenic reactive azo dyes that has potential for effluent treatments. These findings are beneficial in the advancement of addressing waste pollution, both for biological and chemical pollutants, by hastening degradation of both organic and inorganic compounds with the use of indigenous microflora community- a more economic way than other remediation processes.

Articles on the biogeography of ecologically-important species were also included in the issue. One article investigates the occurrence and habitat use of non-native small mammals in upland urban forest environment of Baguio City, Philippines. The other article establishes the relationship between key physical and soil properties with the presence of teak (Tectona grandis L.f.) at natural sites of Mae Yom National Park in Thailand. Such findings are useful in understanding the potentials of occurrence and distribution of species that may be beneficial in conservation or monitoring initiatives of government agencies involved.

The issue also includes discussions on nuclear energy and mining in Philippine setting. The article on nuclear energy dissects the Philippine nuclear issues and presents a framework for possible crafting of nuclear program. The article on mining reviews the Philippine Mining laws and regulations and issues in the industry and offers new perspectives on responsible mining and ecological restoration. These papers refresh understanding and possibly stir-up conversations that may lead to revisiting current position, policies, ordinances, or laws on these particular issues in the country.JESAM is an international refereed scientific journal indexed by Web of Science and Scopus produced semi-annually by the University of the Philippines Los Baños School of Environmental Science and Management. JESAM is among the five Philippine-based journals included in the 2021 Clarivate Analytics Journal Citation Report with current Impact Factor of 0.326.  JESAM is open for submission of research articles of environmental topics and issues. Full articles in this issue may be accessed at https://bit.ly/JESAMarticles. (CBGigantone and CSPadilla)