A delay in the mechanical transplantation (MT) of rice seedlings frequently occurs in Huanghuai wheat-rice rotation cropping districts of China, due to the late harvest of wheat, the poor weather conditions and the insufficiency of transplanters, missing the optimum transplanting time and causing seedlings to age. To identify how delaying transplanting rice affects the agronomic characteristics...

Growth and development of silk worm Bombyx mori L. and cocoon crop are greatly influenced by yield and nutritional quality of mulberry leaf used as feed. The nutritional status of different mulberry varieties is ascertained by its biochemical constituents. Mulberry is rich sources of protein, carbohydrate, carotenoids, lipids, ascorbic acid, anthocyanins etc Hence, five mulberry varieties viz.,...

Few monitoring programs have simultaneously assessed the dynamics of linked marine ecosystems (coral reefs, seagrass beds and mangroves) to document their temporal and spatial variability. Based on CARICOMP protocol we evaluated permanent stations in coral reefs, seagrass beds and mangroves from 1993 to 2008 in Chengue Bay at the Tayrona Natural Park, Colombian Caribbean. Overall, the studied e...

This study developed an efficient and reliable system for inducing polyploidy in Anoectochilus formosanus Hayata, a top-grade medicinal orchid. The resulting tetraploid gave a significant enhancement on various agronomic traits, including dry weight, fresh weight, shoot length, root length, leaf width, the size of stoma, and number of chloroplasts per stoma. A reduction of the ratio of length t...

The diagnostic modeling of gross primary productivity is complicated by a variety of regulatory mechanisms acting at different time scales, e.g. variations in leaf area, chlorophyll content, rubisco activity, and stomatal conductance. A model formulation that can–theoretically–comprise all these variations was first described by [1, 2]: gross primary productivity (GPP) is computed as the produc...

BACKGROUND Jatropha curcas L. (Jatropha) is a potential biodiesel crop that can be cultivated on marginal land because of its strong tolerance to drought and low soil nutrient content. However, seed yield remains low. To enhance the commercial viability and green index of Jatropha biofuel, a systemic and coordinated approach must be adopted to improve seed oil and biomass productivity. Here, we...

The nature and spatial distribution of leaf area, especially leaf size, density and orientation, strongly regulates light harvesting as well as the exchange of carbon and water between plants and atmosphere (Pearcy and Yang 1996). The occupation of three-dimensional space and the characteristics of branches on which leaves are arranged, combine to generate wide variations in shoot, branch and t...

The physiological response of vegetation to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration ([CO2 ]) modifies productivity and surface energy and water fluxes. Quantifying this response is required for assessments of future climate change. Many global climate models account for this response; however, significant uncertainty remains in model simulations of this vegetation response and its i...

A forested brownfield within Liberty State Park, Jersey City, New Jersey, USA, has soils with arsenic, chromium, lead, zinc and vanadium at concentrations above those considered ambient for the area. Using both satellite imagery and field spectral measurements, this study examines plant productivity at the assemblage and individual specimen level. Longer term growth trends (basal area increase ...