Estuarine ecosystems are being rapidly degraded by environmental toxicants from municipal and industrial wastes, agricultural runoff, recreational boating, shipping, and coastal development, ranking them as the most anthropogenically degraded habitat types on earth. Toxicity tests are used to establish links between adverse ecological effects and the toxicity of environmental chemicals. However...

Depending on the physiological process investigated heavy metal phytotoxicity can be either inhibitory or stimulatory. Photosynthesis and its partial light and dark reactions are inhibited; the activity of various enzymes, located in several cell compartiments, is increased. These enzymes are mostly induced since metals affect the transcription activity. They appear to be related to the plant d...

Replacing biosilicon and biocarbon in soil via biochar amendment is a novel approach for soil amelioration and pollution remediation. The unique roles of silicon (Si)-rich biochar in aluminum (Al) phytotoxicity alleviation have not been discovered. In this study, the alleviation of Al phytotoxicity to wheat plants (root tips cell death) by biochars fabricated from rice straw pyrolyzed at 400 an...

The effectiveness of 12 chemical compounds (azoxystrobin, carbendazim, chlorothalonil, fenarimol, folpet, mancozeb, myclobutanil + mancozeb, prochloraz + carbendazim, tebuconazole + triadimefon, tetraconazole + chlorothalonil, tiophanate-methyl, tridemorph + epoxiconazole) in the control of Puccinia horiana was tested on chrysanthemum cv. Fiji Yellow. Additionally, their influence on plant grow...

Introduction Rimon (novaluron, Chemtura Corp.) is an insect growth regulator with activity against a variety of caterpillar pests and whiteflies. It has shown excellent activity against the diamondback moth and should prove useful in resistance management, once it is labeled on cole crops and greens. Recent research has indicated a potential problem with use of novaluron on some greens, as phyt...

Previous studies have suggested that phenolics from legume green manures may contribute to weed control through allelopathy. The objective of this study was to determine how decomposition of red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) residue affects phytotoxicity to a weed species, wild mustard (Sinapis arvensis L.). Red clover (1.25 g), 30 g acid washed sand, and 5 ml of microbial inoculant were incub...

A study was undertaken to assess the phytotoxicity of citronellal, an oxygenated monoterpenoid with an aldehyde group, towards some weedy species [Ageratum conyzoides L., Chenopodium album L., Parthenium hysterophorus L., Malvastrum coromandelianum (L.), Garcke, Cassia occidentalis L. and Phalaris minor Retz.]. A significant effect on weed emergence and early seedling growth was observed in a d...

The mutagenic/cancerogenic potential of acid-mine water from the Slovak mining area Rudnany containing a high load of toxic metals was evaluated after its application to three model test organisms (bacteria Salmonella typhimurium, yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and plant Vicia sativa L.). The results obtained from the modified preincubation Ames assay proved that 1000-fold diluted waste water e...