Exogenously applied glycinebetaine (GB) accumulates at high levels in maize (Zea mays L.). Under water deficit and high temperature conditions GB application produces yield benefits. These sub-optimum conditions often result in high levels of aflatoxin accumulation which reduces grain quality. A 3-year (2008, 2009 and 2010) field experiment was conducted to determine the effects of GB on ma...

Plant architecture is an important agronomic trait, and improving plant architecture has attracted the attention of scientists for decades, particularly studies to create desirable plant architecture for high grain yields through breeding and culture practices. However, many important structural phenotypic traits still lack quantitative description and modeling on structural-functional relativi...

Young secondary forests and plantations in the moist tropics often have rapid rates of biomass accumulation and thus sequester large amounts of carbon. Here, we compare results from mature forest and nearby 15-20 year old tree plantations in lowland Costa Rica to evaluate differences in allocation of carbon to aboveground production and root systems. We found that the tree plantations, which ha...

Mounting concern over the loss of marine biodiversity has increased the urgency of understanding its consequences. This urgency spurred the publication of many short-term studies, which often report weak effects of diversity (species richness) driven by the presence of key species (the sampling effect). Longer-term field experiments are slowly accumulating, and they more often report strong div...

Borax mining at the Rio Tinto boron mine in Boron, California has caused pollution of soil, desertification of local habitats, and loss of biodiversity due to severe boron contamination. I conducted a phytoremediation study to test the effects arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in association with native plant species. The goal of this study was to evaluate the effect of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi ...

Solanum nigrum was found to proliferate in sediments with high levels of metal pollution. The effect of Zn on plant growth and tissue metal accumulation was assessed. The response of the plant to the inoculation with four different isolates of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) (Glomus sp. BEG140, Glomus claroideum, Glomus mosseae and Glomus intraradices) was studied. While the isolates of AMF ...

The effects of lead on the proline content and dry weight of leaves and roots were investigated in two canola cultivars (Brassica napus L.) grown in the Hoagland solution. The growth of treated plants was inhibited under lead stress. Lead induced differential accumulation of proline in canola grown in solution with the addition of 0, 100 and 200 mgL-1 of Pb. Hyola308 cultivar showed low biomass...

Abstract Herein, a link has been established between cold acclimation and Cd uptake in Spirogyra aequinoctialis. The water samples supplemented with cadmium (0.1, 0.5, 1.0 mg/L) were used for plant growth at two different temperatures. Cold-acclimated plants accumulated high concentrations (0.40 ± 0.02 µg/dry biomass) of as compared to non-acclimated (0.30 0.08 biomass). negative effects on the...

fifteen kinds of local wetland plants in taihu lake region of china were investigated on their respective growth conditions, biomass allocations and nutrient uptake capacities. the test plants were cultured in 3 l nutrient solutions for 28 days with nh4 +-n, no3 --n and p concentrations of 38.5, 132.8 and 10 mg/l, respectively. mean species total biomass ranged from 1.2-21.6 g/plant with above/...

toxic heavy metals, such as lead (pb) and cadmium (cd) are widely used in industry and their accumulation in the living tissues may cause serious health problems and ecological hazards. twenty four moderately halophilic bacteria isolated from saline environments of iran were used to study their ability to bioremediation of lead and cadmium. amongst them, a gram-negative rod shaped bacterium, de...