Sustainably feeding the world's growing population in future is a great challenge and can be achieved only by increasing yield per unit land surface. Efficiency of light interception and biomass partitioning into harvestable parts (harvest index) has been improved substantially via plant breeding in modern crops. The conversion efficiency of intercepted light into biomass still holds promise fo...

Past increases in yield potential of wheat have largely resulted from improvements in harvest index rather than increased biomass. Further large increases in harvest index are unlikely, but an opportunity exists for increasing productive biomass and harvestable grain. Photosynthetic capacity and efficiency are bottlenecks to raising productivity and there is strong evidence that increasing phot...

During oxygenic photosynthesis, metabolic reactions of CO2 fixation require more ATP than is supplied by the linear electron flow operating from photosystem II to photosystem I (PSI). Different mechanisms, such as cyclic electron flow (CEF) around PSI, have been proposed to participate in reequilibrating the ATP/NADPH balance. To determine the contribution of CEF to microalgal biomass productiv...

Microalgal cultivation using wastewater is now regarded as essential for biodiesel production, as two goals can be achieved simultaneously; that is, nutrient removal efficiency and biomass production. Therefore, this study examined the effects of carbon sources, the N:P ratio, and the hydraulic retention time (HRT) to identify the optimal conditions for nutrient removal efficiency and biomass p...

BACKGROUND Algal biofilm technology is recently supposed to be a promising method to produce algal biomass as the feedstock for the production of biofuels. However, the carrier materials currently used to form algal biofilm are either difficult to be obtained at a low price or undurable. Commercialization of the biofilm technology for algal biomass production extremely requires new and inexpens...

Sugarcane has been a major agronomic crop in Hawaii with an unique, high-yield, two-year production system. However, parameters relevant to advanced, cellulosic biofuel production, such as net ecosystem productivity (NEP) and radiation use efficiency (RUE), have not been evaluated in Hawaii under commercial production. Recent demand potential has rekindled interest in Hawaiian grown biofuels; a...

In order to evaluation of drought resistant indices in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), 10 barley genotypes evaluated in Completely Randomized Design with three Replications in two conditions, (under drought stress and in normal with irrigation in planting, flowering and grain filling stages) in Islamic Azad University, Miyaneh Branch Research Farm in 2012. Drought tolerant indices basis of yield p...

Patchiness of above-ground vegetation, such as that in semi-arid grasslands and shrublands, can pose problems in sampling plant cover, biomass and productivity. We present a method of measuring above-ground plant biomass and production that can be applied consistently among vegetation types and that generates seasonal, spatially-explicit results. Results from 15 sites within the Jornada Basin (...

The net primary productivity, carbon (C) stocks and turnover rates (i.e. C dynamics) of tropical forests are an important aspect of the global C cycle. These variables have been investigated in lowland tropical forests, but they have rarely been studied in tropical montane forests (TMFs). This study examines spatial patterns of aboveand belowground C dynamics along a transect ranging from lowla...

Tropical forests store large amounts of biomass despite they generally grow in nutrient-poor soils, suggesting that the role of soil characteristics in the structure and dynamics of tropical forests is complex. We used data for >34 000 trees from several permanent plots in French Guiana to investigate if soil characteristics could predict the structure (tree diameter, density and aboveground bi...