Massive tree dieback has occurred periodically in the Hawaiian montane rain forest. The species mainly involved is Metrosideros polymorpha, which is the prevailing upper canopy tree species throughout most of this forest on all high Hawaiian islands. The canopy dieback occurs in stands over the entire spectrum of sites, from well-drained lava flows over nutritionally rich volcanic ash to perman...

In 2001 and 2002, Georgia salt marshes experienced a dieback event that affected more than 800 ha throughout the coastal zone. The dieback event was unprecedented in the state and affected both Spartina alterniflora and Juncus roemerianus. A transplant study was conducted from May to October 2003 to determine if healthy plants could survive in dieback areas. Transplants were carried out at two ...

In 2011, Big Bend National Park, Texas, USA, experienced the most severe single year drought in its recorded history, resulting in significant plant mortality. We used this event to test how perennial plant response to drought varied across elevation, plant growth form and leaf traits. In October 2010 and October 2011, we measured plant cover by species at six evenly-spaced elevations ranging f...

Background: The aims of the study are to determine the radioactivity concentrations of 226Ra, 238U, 232Th and 40K in vegetables of a recently found high background radiation area of south-eastern part of Bangladesh and to detect the radiological risks to human from intake of these vegetables. Materials and Method: 10 plant samples were collected randomly from different locations of the study ar...

Papaya leaf distortion mosaic virus is highly destructive to commercial papaya production. Here, the complete genome sequence was determined for an isolate of papaya leaf distortion mosaic virus, designated PLDMV-DF, infecting the commercialized papaya ringspot virus (PRSV)-resistant transgenic papaya from China. Excluding the 3'-poly (A) tail, the sequence shares high sequence identity to seve...

Approximately 50,000 ha of native wet Metrosideros forest on the island of Hawai'i experienced a drastic reduction (dieback) of the tree canopy between 1954 and 1977. Two general hypotheses have previously been suggested to explain this phenomenon: 1) Metrosideros dieback has resulted from recently introduced pathogens, and 2) the dieback has naturally occurred previously in Hawai'i, and is rel...

X chromosomes have long been thought to conserve the structure and gene content of the ancestral autosome from which the sex chromosomes evolved. We compared the recently evolved papaya sex chromosomes with a homologous autosome of a close relative, the monoecious Vasconcellea monoica, to infer changes since recombination stopped between the papaya sex chromosomes. We sequenced 12 V. monoica ba...