Pre-planting factors have been associated with the late-season severity of Stagonospora nodorum blotch (SNB), caused by the fungal pathogen Parastagonospora nodorum, in winter wheat (Triticum aestivum). The relative importance of these factors in the risk of SNB has not been determined and this knowledge can facilitate disease management decisions prior to planting of the wheat crop. In this st...

Modelling crop evapotranspiration (ET) response to different planting scenarios in an irrigation district plays a significant role in optimizing crop planting patterns, resolving agricultural water scarcity and facilitating the sustainable use of water resources. In this study, the SWAT model was improved by transforming the evapotranspiration module. Then, the improved model was applied in Qin...

This research was conducted in 2007 and 2008 cropping seasons in the experimental field of Shahid Salemi, Ahvaz, south west of Iran. In each year, the study consisted of a split split-plot experiment, using Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Four irrigation levels including irrigationoff at the 8 leaf, the 12 leaf and the tasseling stages and optimum irrigation wer...

Plants have an important impact on soil microbial communities and their functions. However, how plants determine the microbial composition and network interactions is still poorly understood. During a four-year field experiment, we investigated the functional gene composition of three types of soils (Phaeozem, Cambisols and Acrisol) under maize planting and bare fallow regimes located in cold t...

The rice water weevil, Lissorhoptrus oryzophilus, is the most destructive insect pest of rice in the United States. Early planting of rice to avoid damaging infestations of the rice water weevil has long been suggested as a management tactic. A five-year study was conducted to characterize the influence of rice planting date on rice water weevil management in light of recent trends toward earli...

The ability to restore American chestnut (Castanea dentata) through the planting of blight-resistant (Cryphonectria parasitica) trees is currently being tested. Forest-based research on the species’ silvicultural requirements and chestnut blight development are lacking. Pure American chestnut seedlings were planted in a two-age shelterwood forest with low residual basal area and in a midstory-r...

Controlled environment studies show a-tocopherol (aT) in soybean seeds increases several fold as a result of warmer temperature or drought during seed maturation, but total tocopherols (Ttot) stay approximately constant. To determine if natural variation in weather or climate affect T under field conditions, we analyzed soybean seeds grown at several locations in Maryland between 1999 and 2002....

This paper presents an investigation on application of metaheuristic approaches to handle the optimization of planting areas with regards to Lining Layout Planning (LLP). Metaheuristic is approximate solution that sacrifice the guarantee of finding an optimal solution. However, it is an appropriate approach to be employed in two basic situations: 1. a problem may not has an exact method because...