(or dipterocarps translating literally to winged seeds) which grow to giant sizes produced wood faster than neighbouring trees of other families or any trees in the Amazonian sites.
Lead author Dr Lindsay Banin from the UK's Centre for Ecology & Hydrology said In Borneo dipterocarps--a family of large trees with winged seeds--produce wood more quickly than their neighbours.
Stink bugs feed as nymphs and adults on the fruit and pods of plants which maximizes their chances to render a crop unmarketable.
whose seeds resist shattering such as corn whose kernels stay on the cob instead of falling off. Early agriculturalists also shortened flowering time for crops necessary in shorter growing seasons as in Canada.
Rejesus says that research into more drought-resistant seeds or other ways of combating sensitivity to drought is necessary
when people threw out the refuse of plant foods including seeds some grew and again set seed and in this way people inadvertently selected species they were eating that also did well in the disturbed and nutrient-rich environment of the dump heap.
Cultivation practices play a huge role in selection said Olsen. Traditionally in Southeast asia many different varieties of rice were grown simultaneously in a given field.
This includes seeds that remain attached to the plant for harvesting (a trait called nonshattering) reduced branching and robust growth of the central stem and bigger fruits seeds or tubers.
Wheat seeds are coated with substances that also form hydrocyanic acid when they react. However the base substances are separated from each other in different layers
and react only when the seeds are bitten by a herbivore. Stark describes the successful research method as imitating nature
and it's not very good at dispersing seeds long distance said author Robert Arkle a supervisory ecologist for the USGS Forest & Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center at the Snake river Field Station in Idaho.
Seeds aren't viable very long. Some years they don't reproduce at all without the right spring conditions.
To cover such large areas BLM spreads seed from aircraft or with tractor and rangeland drill seeders usually in the fall or early winter.
In addition these genome sequences will serve as a guide for the assembly of the cultivated peanut genome that will help to decipher genomic changes that led to peanut domestication which was marked by increases in seed number and size.
People with this disease cannot eat food containing wheat rye or barley which is a main source of protein intake in the western diet.
and use to meet their needs Dong said We originally thought this would look at seeds growing in a cube.
and disposable chips containing seeds that will grow into seedlings. Hundreds of the chips-in-mini-greenhouses can grow thousands of plants at the same time each greenhouse providing different environmental conditions.
As the plants within all those chambers grow a camera attached to a robotic arm takes thousands of images of cells seeds roots and shoots.
and Madan Bhattacharyya who's studying how fungal pathogens interact with soybean seeds at different moisture levels.
Ants promote the regeneration of these forests by dispersing seeds to safe sites for tree establishment.
The red lipid-rich aril a fleshy pulp surrounding the seeds of Clusia is highly attractive to many animals.
and defecate the seeds. Ants haul seeds which have fallen to the ground to their nests or leave them intact on their way.
Research has already been conducted on the influence of this so-called secondary seed dispersal but very little is known about its impact in degraded forest ecosystems.
The microclimate in the deforested areas is characterized by harsh abiotic conditions that limit seed germination
The researchers deposited 1440 Clusia seeds in 72 depots at six sites. At each site they studied three habitat types:
and hauled away about 60 percent of all seeds says Silvia Gallegos lead author of the study
and a doctoral student at the Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (Bik-F) and the University of Halle-Wittenberg. 48 hours and again one month after establishing the depots the team searched for the seeds within a 2. 5
meter radius. More than 80 percent of the seeds transported away could be relocated. In most cases the ants removed the aril
Especially in the degraded habitats we found that seeds which had been removed by ants were predated less often
and germinated more frequently than the unmoved seeds explains Dr. Matthias Schleuning co-author and scientist at Bik-F. Quite often the ants removed the seed aril only in their nests
or on the way there--often leaving the seeds protected by the litter layer. Under the leaf litter the seeds were less likely to be detected by rodents
or other seed predators and benefited from the humid conditions favorable for germination. The effect in the deforested habitats was clearly visible:
one month after the experiment had started establishment of seedlings was about five times higher for dispersed than for non-dispersed seeds.
Dispersal distance had a positive effect as well: The farther the ants had transported the seeds the higher was the chance that Clusia seedlings had established.
Even more important services by ants in the futureants have a clearly positive impact on the dispersal
and establishment of the investigated tree species. This is particularly relevant as other animal and plant species may follow the species that facilitates the establishment of others.
and reduced seed set greatly reducing the crop yield. The impacts on wheat and soybean are likely to be less profound primarily because of the fertilisation effects that elevated levels of CO2 can have on these crops.
Even the source of the vodka--corn wheat rye barley potato berries and cactus--didn't affect peoples'preferences he noted.
#Forest corridors help plants disperse their seeds, study showsa forest in South carolina a supercomputer in Ohio and some glow-in-the-dark yarn have helped a team of field ecologists conclude that woodland corridors connecting patches of endangered plants not only increase dispersal of seeds
from one patch to another but also create wind conditions that can spread the seeds for much longer distances.
The idea for the study emerged from modern animal conservation practices where landscape connectivity--the degree to
and seed dispersal in open habitats was published in the March 4 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United states of america and referenced in the February 27 issue of Nature.
and humidity at roughly 20 points throughout the experimental landscape Seed traps sampled seed arrival at many points in
and around the gaps and hundreds of artificial seeds made of black-light fluorescent yarn were released
These very large experimental efforts provided a novel dataset of observations of seed movement and wind in patch-corridors landscapes.
and seeds movement and the forest structure are known. Bohrer ran the dataset through a high-resolution atmospheric model that he had developed on OSC's IBM Opteron 1350 Glenn Cluster.
and seeds that disperse with it through a forest Bohrer said. The model resolves the wind flow
It also represented millions of dispersing virtual seeds. The model calculated the movement of the air and virtual seeds 20 times per second over four hours.
We found that corridors could affect the wind direction and align the wind flow with the corridor that they accelerate the wind
and winter rye planted after corn was harvested in the fall. The research funded by the U s. Department of agriculture used simulated management practices including tillage synthetic fertilizer use and mechanical weed control.
and vegetable crops which are highly perishable tend to have less regulation than the grains and oilseeds.
or access to the right seeds she said. There has been evidence that major famines weren't due to a lack of food production they occurred
The researchers were thrilled to discover that plants in the reintroduced populations are flowering and setting seed.
and seeds in the field was fantastic. Arenaria cuttings root easily making it relatively straightforward to propagate large numbers of plants in the UCSC greenhouses.
and spreading their seeds especially the seeds of species that are first to recolonise cleared land.
In tropical habitats bat-mediated seed dispersal is necessary for the rapid succession of deforested land
because few other animals than bats disperse seeds into open habitats says Daniel Lewanzik doctoral candidate at the IZW and first author of the study.
Under naturally dark conditions bats produce a copious'seed rain 'when defecating seeds while flying.
By reducing foraging of fruit-eating bats in lit areas light pollution is likely to reduce seed rain he commented.
In many tropical countries light pollution is increasing rapidly as economies and human populations grow.
The study Deer Browsing Delays Succession by Altering Aboveground Vegetation and Belowground Seed Banks was published online March 7 in PLOS ONE.
when deer consume native plants the nonnative species are left to flourish dropping seed in the soil.
and reduced plant biomass less recruitment of woody species and relatively fewer native species. And the deer's negative impact on seed banks resulted in significantly decreased overall species richness and relatively more short-lived species
--and germinated the seed. They found the soil cores from outside of the exclosures contained many more seeds from nonnative species. Deer select forests for their trees
but in doing so disrupt forest system growth trajectories concludes the study. It's obvious that the deer are affecting the aboveground species
We are seeing a divergence of seeds contained within the soil from what should be there says Ditommaso We are not seeing the seeds of woody plants.
Instead we're seeing an escalation of nonnative seed and the virtual elimination of woody plant seeds.
1. mixing it in the stamp sand before planting seed; 2. coating seed with bacteria and planting it;
3. germinating seeds and planting them in soil to which bacteria were added; and4. the conventional method immersing the roots of maize seedlings in bacteria
and planting them in stamp sand. After 45 days the team uprooted the plants and measured their dry weight.
or as germinated seeds. However when the researchers analyzed the dried maize they made a surprising discovery:
the seed-planted maize took up far more copper as a percentage of dry weight. In other words the smaller plants pulled more copper ounce per ounce out of the stamp sands than the bigger ones.
and have seeds with less protein and greater oil concentration. The new varieties tend to mature later within these maturity groups
Most of the yield increases are the result of breeders selecting better combinations of genes that can allow plants to take sunlight and produce more seed from that sunlight.
We don't know what genes breeders are selecting that are resulting in these increases for example where in that pathway from the sunlight hitting the canopy to producing seed where this occurs.
It affects the crop cultivar the variety of seed planted the amount and type of fertilizer required
Next a soil moisture profile is developed with the principle of maximum entropy model (POME) which uses prior specific data over a set of trial probabilities to determine which is the most likely outcome.
In fight against parasites, Barberry sacrifices seeds depending on survival chanceplants appear to be able to make complex decisions.
and the University of GÃ ttingen have concluded from their investigations on Barberry (Berberis vulgaris) which is able to abort its own seeds to prevent parasite infestation.
a highly specialized species of tephritid fruit fly whose larvae actually feed on the seeds of the native Barberry was found to have a tenfold higher population density on its new host plant the Oregon grape reports Dr. Harald Auge a biologist at the UFZ.
This led scientists to examine the seeds of the Barberry more closely. Approximately 2000 berries were collected from different regions of Germany examined for signs of piercing
If the larva is able to develop it will often feed on all of the seeds in the berry.
A special characteristic of the Barberry is that each berry usually has two seeds and that the plant is able to stop the development of its seeds in order to save its resources.
This mechanism is employed also to defend it from the tephritid fruit fly. If a seed is infested with the parasite later on the developing larva will feed on both seeds.
If however the plant aborts the infested seed then the parasite in that seed will also die
and the second seed in the berry is saved. When analysing the seeds the scientists came across a surprising discovery:
the seeds of the infested fruits are aborted not always but rather it depends on how many seeds there are in the berries explains Dr. Katrin M. Meyer who analysed the data at the UFZ and currently works at the University of Goettingen.
If the infested fruit contains two seeds then in 75 per cent of cases the plants will abort the infested seeds in order to save the second intact seed.
If however the infested fruit only contains one seed then the plant will only abort the infested seed in 5 per cent of cases.
The data from fieldwork were put into a computer model which resulted in a conclusive picture. Using computer model calculations scientists were able to demonstrate how those plants subjected to stress from parasite infestation reacted very differently from those without stress.
If the Barberry aborts a fruit with only one infested seed then the entire fruit would be lost.
Instead it appears to'speculate'that the larva could die naturally which is a possibility.
Slight chances are better than none at all explains Dr. Hans-Hermann Thulke from the UFZ.
and rye as well as root crops such as sweet potato cassava and yam--have lost ground. Many other locally significant grain and vegetable crops--for which globally comparable data are not available--have suffered the same fate.
Understanding effects of smoke compounds on seed germinationalthough seemingly destructive wildfires help to maintain biodiversity
of which have been found to break seed dormancy and stimulate germination. In a new study published in the March issue of Applications in Plant sciences scientists at Eastern Illinois University have developed a novel system to produce smoke solutions to further investigate the importance of smoke compounds such as butenolides
and cyanohydrins in seed germination and seedling growth. Because many of the identified compounds are known to be water soluble using a smoke solution is a convenient alternative to direct fumigation of seeds explains Dr. Janice Coons lead author of the study.
The new system utilizes a bee smoker heater hose and water aspirator. Water-soluble compounds are dissolved by bubbling smoke through water contained in a flask.
which may have different effects on seed germination. Native species often require special conditions to break seed dormancy explains Coons.
This new system allows researchers to produce smoke solutions from any plant species they wish.
In addition commercially available smoke solutions often contain seed germination enhancers such as gibberellic acid which may confound results.
Some people with nut allergies were desensitized to related tree nuts to which were also allergic
Bactericides for potatoes are labeled only for seed treatments although foliar applications in the field are allowed on some tree fruits crops.
#Rapeseed-based animal feed cuts greenhouse gases by up to 13 per centthe use of rapeseed cake in the production of livestock feed cuts methane
and carbon dioxide emissions by up to 13%according to the initial results of the research carried out by Neiker-Tecnalia within the framework of the Life-Seed Capital project.
Specifically the incorporation of this oilseed plant into animal food cuts methane emissions by between 6%and 13%and carbon dioxide emissions by between 6. 8%and 13.6%.
%The introduction of this oilseed preparation into the diet of ruminants also improves efficiency in the use of digestible organic matter by between 4. 4%and 10.1
The Life-Seed Capital project is being funded by the European union through its Life+program and is being led by the Basque Institute for Agricultural Research and development Neiker-Tecnalia and by the Multidisciplinary Centre for Industry Technologies CEMITEC.
The project seeks to take advantage of rapeseed crops to improve agricultural productivity and at the same time to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Once it has been harvested rapeseed can be used as a biofuel and added to diesel in varying proportions after simple cold pressing.
#Seed-filled buoys may help restore diverse sea meadows in San francisco Baya pearl net filled with seedpods tethered by a rope anchored in the coastal mud
which the seeds were harvested said Sarah Cohen an associate professor of biology at the Romberg Tiburon Center.
and seeds scattered over a large area could be washed away from the restoration site. Instead RTC researchers tested the Buoy Deployed Seeding (Buds) restoration technique.
They first harvested eelgrass seedpods from several eelgrass beds in San francisco bay then suspended the pods within floating nets over experimental tanks (called mesocosms) supplied with Bay water and with or without sediment from the original eelgrass areas.
As the seeds inside each pod ripened a few at a time they dropped out of the nets
and mongoose lemurs that eat a mix of fruit leaves seeds flowers nectar and insects.
#Controlling stone fruit disease: New approaches foundresearchers at the University and East Malling Research have identified a new way of controlling a fungal disease that can have a devastating impact on the UK's valuable cherry and plum crops.
Brown rot disease--caused by the agent Monilinia laxa--attacks stone fruit as well as causing blossom wilt
and be used by the stone fruit industry to control brown rot disease.''Currently East Malling Research is exploiting ways with commercial companies to formulate the two strains of biocontrol agents and conduct pilot commercial trialling of formulated products.
The research paper titled Identification and Characterisation of New Microbial Antagonists for Biocontrol of Monilinia laxa the Causal agent of Brown Rot on Stone fruit is published in the journal Agronomy.
Performance under flood Seed treatments for row crops such as corn cotton or soybean target early-season pests that are in the soil
when the seed is planted. But rice seed treatments are different. We're targeting primarily rice water weevils
Gore said all of the seed treatments are water soluble and water can have both positive and negative effects on seed treatments.
Because rice is grown in aquatic or semiaquatic environments we needed to find out how different water management practices might impact the seed treatments'performance he said.
Andrew Adams an MSU graduate student from Greenville set up tests in grower fields across the Delta and at the Delta Research and Extension Center.
which is about two months that the seed treatment was sitting in the soil without having insect pressure Adams said.
Where we delayed the permanent flood until eight weeks after planting the seed treatment was compromised not
Flushing is used for herbicide incorporation seed germination or for irrigation during hot and dry conditions he said.
Adams tested zero one and two flushes with water across a rice field to check the efficacy of three different seed treatments.
The seed treatments Cruiser and Nipsit were impacted negatively with the application of the second flush
Seed treatment rates Gore and Adams also tested the efficacy of seed treatment rates in hybrid rice.
Hybrid rice varieties are grown at 20 to 25 pounds of seed per acre versus 75 to 85 pounds with conventional varieties Gore said.
Because seed treatment rates are based on a per-seed basis we wanted to know if the lower seeding rate and hence the lower seed treatment rate on a per acre basis impacted insect control.
It did not. No additional benefit was observed from increasing the seed treatment rate. Currently labeled rates for hybrid rice production are said correct Gore.
The management practice that showed significant improvement in rice water weevil control beyond the seed treatment was a foliar overspray with a pyrethroid on hybrid rice Gore said.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Mississippi State university Office of Agricultural Communications.
While often called cocoa beans cocoa plants actually are colored large brightly pods filled with many seeds.
Cocoa to Chocolatecocoa seeds are removed from the pod dried and roasted giving them a distinct dark color and unique flavor.
After roasting cocoa seeds are ground into a paste called chocolate liquor. The liquor separates into dry cocoa and cocoa butter or fat.
Chocolate Safetythe roasting process kills bacteria on the cocoa seeds. Because of the high fat low moisture content chocolate generally does not spoil.
It can be distinguished easily by its spherical acorns covered with a dense pattern of irregularly placed scales that completely conceal the nut except for a tiny opening at the top and
and corn or biodiesel from rapeseed and palm oil are in direct competition with food for arable land and water.
and then grinding the whole berry--fiber seeds and fuzz--into a fine powder. The black raspberry formulations are currently being used in a clinical study of men with prostate cancer undergoing surgery.
because they eat weed seeds in the field edge site. The researchers who report their findings in the current issue of Agriculture Ecosystems
Besides this test will produce materials of high quality (seeds and sections of plants) and using them will allow farmers to obtain better yields in future plantings.
while the seeds were stored. Dr Robin Allaby of the School of Life sciences at the University of Warwick who led the study said:
and Canada collected seeds from several areas tested different fertilisation levels and took into account chemical and physical variations in the soil.
Almost universally the term whole grain indicates inclusion of all three components of the cereal grain kernel--endosperm (this is the largest part of the grain
and pseudo grains (such as quinoa and amaranth) and processing guidelines that take into account current milling practices.
a single main stem topped by a single tassel a few very short branches tipped by female ears and synchronous seed maturation.
After the Industrial revolution carbon dioxide rose to today's 405 parts per million the level in the control chamber where teosinte plants look like plants in the wild today--tall with many long branches tipped by tassels and seed maturation taking place
and nut species including common apple (Malus domestica) Chinese chestnut (Castanea mollissima) European or sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) European plum (Prunus domestica) and European pear (Pyrus communis).
what processors and seed companies need to know in order to make improved production decisions. In other words Williams said researchers need to start speaking the same language as the sweet corn industry.
and seed companies make decisions in the future according to the researcher. Applied research aimed at improving crop productivity is predicated on the ability to accurately measure important crop responses such as yield.
#Developing new methods to assess resistance to disease in young oilseed rape plantsbeing able to measure resistance to disease in young oilseed rape plants is vital in the battle to breed new
Oilseed rape is prone to phoma stem canker also known as blackleg disease which is responsible for losses worth more than £1200 million in oilseed rape crops across the world.
With the fragile state of the world's economy and concern over food shortages there is a need to protect arable crops from disease.
However assessing disease resistance in young oilseed rape plants is difficult as there is a long period where the pathogen is not visible--it can infect plants
So there is a need to develop oilseed crop varieties with greater inbuilt resistance to the disease.
Although oilseed rape crops in the UK are bred for disease resistance it is a difficult and expensive process--both in time
Traditionally selection of disease resistant oilseed crops has relied on field assessments of disease severity on stems
If resistance can be assessed in young oilseed rape plants it will not only accelerate the process of breeding oilseed rape crops for resistance
The paper based on experiments done by Dr Yong-Ju Huang at Rothamsted Research shows that resistance in young oilseed rape plants can be detected in controlled conditions
Specifically he had characterized how moisture deforms materials including biological materials such as pinecones leaves and flowers as well as human-made materials such as a sheet of tissue paper lying in a dish of water.
#Sequence of water buffalo completedlal Teer Livestock Limited an associate of Lalteer Seed Ltd. the largest seed company in Bangladesh with strong hybrid research program
Tracking an alien invader of conker trees using people poweran army of citizen scientists has helped the professionals understand how a tiny'alien'moth is attacking the UK's conker (horse-chestnut trees
The caterpillars of the moth'tunnel'through the leaves of conker trees causing them to turn brown and autumnal in appearance even in the height of summer.
In 2010 thousands of'citizen scientists'were asked by two professional ecologists to collect records of leaf damage from across the country as part of a project called'Conker Tree Science'.
Unlike some other citizen science projects that use biological records submitted by members of the public for long-term monitoring the Conker Tree Science project set out to test two specific hypotheses over the course of a year.
Conker Tree Science was run with funding from the Natural Environment Research Council and begun when the two authors were at the University of Bristol.
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