Seeds are important to agriculture and conservation of plant biodiversity. In agriculture, seed germination performance is an important determinant of crop yield, in particular under adverse climatic conditions. Deterioration in seed quality is associated with the accumulation of cellular damage to macromolecules including lipids, protein, and DNA. Mechanisms that mitigate the deleterious cellu...

We estimate the annual financial losses resulting from wildlife damage to major crops and livestock in Nebraska. For each wildlife species, the damage problem is presented along with a description of how the estimate was made. Field crop estimates include losses from Plains pocket gophers (Geomys bursarius), commensal rodents (Rattus norvegicus and Mus musculus), field rodents in grain fields (...

The incorporation of a rye (Secale cereale L.) cover crop into the soil prior to planting cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) has been shown to restrict damage caused by root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne incognita (Kofoid and White) Chitwood). A greenhouse study was conducted to determine the duration of the effectiveness of rye decomposition in controlling root-knot nematode damage in relation to th...

Damage begins after a female bores a hole in the berry and builds a gallery in the seed where eggs are deposited. After hatching, the larvae start consuming the seed [1]. Feeding by adults and larvae can turn the bean into a dusty mass of frass, but even lightly bored beans have a distinctive blue-green staining which lowers quality. The galleries allow pathogens to enter, leading to fermentati...

The fruiting ecology of Osyris quadripartita (Santalaceae), a hemiparasitic evergreen shrub, was studied over a 4-yr period in a Mediterranean scrubland of southern Spain. In addition to describing the natural history of seed dispersal in this species, objectives of the study were (1) to document patterns of individual and annual variation in seed-dispersal-related traits (fruit characteristics...

Much of cover crop research to date focuses on key indicators of impact without considering the implications over multiple years, in the absence of a systems-based approach. To evaluate the effect of three years of autumn cover crops on subsequent processing tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) production in 2010 and 2011, a field split-split-plot factorial design trial with effects of cover crop t...

Wireworms are a soil-inhabiting crop pest. Larvae attack many crops, particularly potatoes, and even low populations can cause an economic level of damage. In the UK, high wireworm populations are traditionally associated with long-term grass leys (Parker and Howard, 2001). In the case of organic production, potato crops frequently follow a long-term fertility-building grass ley. Organically gr...