The diffusion of e-cigarette (e-CIG) opens a great scientific and regulatory debate about its safety. The huge number of commercialized devices, e-liquids with almost infinite chemical formulations and the growing market demand for a rapid and efficient toxicity screen system that is able to test all of these references and related aerosols. A consensus on the best protocols for the e-CIG safet...

The survey on tilapia-shrimp polyculture was conducted in Thailand and Vietnam from March through June 2002. The survey conducted in Thailand was to assess the current status of farmers’ practice of tilapia-shrimp polyculture, while the survey conducted in Vietnam was to find out why Vietnamese shrimp farmers do not grow tilapia in shrimp ponds. In twelve provinces of Thailand, 61 farmers who c...

background and objectivesintercropping or simultaneous growing of two or more crops on the same piece of land has the potential of enhanced ecosystem productivity. in a cereal-legume intercropping system, an increase in cereal and a decrease in legume intercrop yield is reported. several indices such as land equivalent ratio (ler), relative crowding coefficient (k), competitive ratio (cr), aggr...

We developed 23 polymorphic microsatellite markers for the symbiotic fungi cultivated by leaf cutter ants, then assessed allelic variation in North American leafcutter-fungus populations (Mexico, Cuba, USA). Polyploidy was indicated by 21 of the 23 loci, consistent with the multinucleate nature of leafcutter fungi. Microsatellite fingerprinting can now assess fungal genetic variation within lea...

Intensive agricultural farming practices, such as monoculture, require long bare fallow periods and the overuse of agrochemicals, which compromise soil health over time. Increasing plant diversity in agroecosystems with service crops represents a promising alternative to achieving sustainability goals. However, how specific cover crop species influence abundance structure bacterial communities ...

Studies in experimental grasslands have shown variation in plant individual performance in response to neighbourhood diversity. To which extent these responses are due to phenotypic plasticity or genetic variation is largely unknown. We collected seed families of five herbaceous species (Cirsium oleraceum, Crepis biennis, Plantago lanceolata, Plantago media and Rumex acetosa) in monocultures an...

Farmers in many regions of the world grow a horticultural or grain crop between sugarcane (a complex hybrid of Saccharum spp.) cycles. This additional crop often requires higher amounts of P or K fertilizers than does sugarcane. Some sugarcane growers in Florida precede 2to 5-year cycles of sugarcane with one crop of spring-harvested sweet corn (Zea mays L.). A disadvantage perceived with this ...

Increasing plant diversity in the perennial phase of pasture-crop rotations is predicted to positively affect belowground productivity and microbial communities and, turn, augment agroecosystem services including soil health carbon storage. Using two grass one legume forage species grown as monocultures combined four intercropped combinations, we evaluated how identity richness influence produc...

Previous studies have shown that biological structures such as plant roots can have large impacts on landscape morphodynamics, and that physical models that do not incorporate biology can generate qualitatively incorrect predictions of sediment transport. However, work to date has focused almost entirely on the impacts of single, usually dominant, species. Here we ask whether multiple, coexisti...

Soil food webs comprise a multitude of trophic interactions that can affect the composition and productivity of plant communities. Belowground predators feeding on microbial grazers like Collembola could decelerate nutrient mineralization by reducing microbial turnover in the soil, which in turn could negatively influence plant growth. However, empirical evidences for the ecological significanc...