Understanding and monitoring ecological impacts of the expanding agricultural industry in Belize is an important step in conservation action. To compare possible alterations in herpetofaunal communities due to these anthropogenic changes, trapping arrays were set in a manicured orchard, a reclaimed orchard and a lowland broadleaf forest in Stann Creek district at Toucan Ridge Ecology and Educat...

Orchard workers are a population at risk for serious and disabling occupational injuries and illnesses. The purpose of this descriptive, exploratory study was to gather information about orchard workers' perceptions and experiences related to their work to better understand factors that contribute to their occupational risk. The sample consisted of 180 Hispanic orchard workers from 3 counties i...

Lead arsenate was used on orchard soils as a pesticide from 1900 to 1960. An in vitro method has been used to determine the bioaccessiblity of Pb in soils contaminated by Pb paint, fossil fuel combustion, and metallurgical industries. The Pb fraction that is potentially bioavailable from orchard soils, however, has not been reported. Potential reductions in availability of Pb and As as a result...

This clinical epidemiological study will determine if farm workers chronically exposed to organophosphate pesticides (OP) in field work have quantifiable nervous system abnormalities after an exposure season and whether these changes are persistent after a several month period of non-exposure. This cross-sectional study with a follow-up component will compare 50 female orchard farmworkers with ...

Brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorpha halys (Stål), injury to late-season apple cultivars was measured at harvest in 2011 and 2012 in commercial orchards in four mid-Atlantic states. In each orchard block, a border zone (adjacent to woods), an interior zone (near orchard center), and an intermediate zone (between border and interior zones) comprised 1-3 tree rows per zone, depending on block ...

Due to climate changes, drought- and lime-tolerant Prunus mahaleb rootstock may gain importance. Among the Mahaleb rootstocks hybrids, there are standard moderate-vigorous types, but their intensive testing in orchards is still needed. Our paper reports on SL 64, Bogdány, Magyar, SM 11/4 clonal Mahalebs, hybrid MaxMa 14. ‘Carmen’, ‘Vera’, ‘Paulus’, ‘Rita’ sweet cherry trees were trained above p...

Knowledge of tree size is great importance for the precision management a hazelnut orchard. In fact, it has been shown that site-specific crop allows best possible and efficiency use inputs. Generally, measurements parameters are carried out using manual techniques time-consuming, labor-intensive not very precise. The aim this study was to propose, evaluate validate simple innovative procedure ...

Long-term vanilla monocropping often results in the occurrence of vanilla Fusarium wilt disease, seriously affecting its production all over the world. In the present study, vanilla exhibited significantly less Fusarium wilt disease in the soil of a long-term continuously cropped black pepper orchard. The entire fungal communities of bulk and rhizosphere soils between the black pepper-vanilla s...

`Kent' mango (Mangifera indica L.) ̄owers were sampled in an orchard in the coastal plain of Israel during the 1997 ̄owering season. Effective pollination rate was determined at two stages of the fertilization process: (a) pollen germination on the stigma; (b) pollen-tube penetration into the ovule. Pollination rates were negligible during the ®rst part of the ̄owering season (31 March to 18 Ap...

Insect-pathogenic fungi are important natural enemies of insect pests but their dynamics in the soils of different agroecosystems are incompletely understood. In the present study, the seasonal occurrence and species diversity of insect-associated fungi in soil were investigated by baiting soil samples with larvae of Galleria mellonella. The survey included insect-pathogenic fungi, opportunisti...