Anthropogenic habitat disturbance is a strong biodiversity change driver that compromises not only the species persistence but also the ecological interactions in which they are involved. Even though seed dispersal is a key interaction involved in the recruitment of many tree species and in consequence critical for biodiversity maintenance, studies assessing the effect of different anthropogeni...

Resource concentration effects occur when high resource density patches attract and support more foragers than low density patches. In contrast, resource dilution effects can occur if high density patches support fewer consumers. In this study, we examined the foraging rates of pollinators and seed predators on two perennial plant species (Rudbeckia triloba and Verbena stricta) as functions of ...

In coming decades, increasing temperatures are expected to impact crop yield and seed quality. To develop low input systems, the effects of temperature and sulfur (S) nutrition in oilseed rape, a high S demanding crop, need to be jointly considered. In this study, we investigated the effects of temperatures [High Temperature (HT), 33°C/day, 19°C/night vs. Control Temperature (Ctrl T), 20°C/day,...

Loss of seeds to consumers is common in plant communities, but the degree to which these losses influence plant abundance or population growth is often unclear. This is particularly the case for postdispersal seed predation by rodents, as most studies of rodent seed predation have focused on the sources of spatiotemporal variation in seed loss but not quantified the population consequences of t...

We evaluated winter (January through March) carbon assimilation of red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.) from three Vermont seed sources grown in a common garden in northwestern Vermont. Although CO(2) exchange rates were generally low, net photosynthetic rates increased during two prolonged thaws. Significant correlations between CO(2) exchange rates and multiday air temperature means supported our ...

The results of recent trials for winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) have influenced farming practice in the UK by encouraging the use of lower seed rates. Spink et al. (2000) have demonstrated that, particularly if sown early, wheat can compensate for reduced plant populations by increased tiller production. Results from seed-rate trials are usually analysed separately for each environment or ...

Most studies on seed dispersal in time have focused on seed dormancy and the physiological triggers for germination. However, seed dispersed by animals with low metabolic and moving rates, and long gut-passage times such as terrestrial turtles, could be considered another type of dispersal in time. This study tests the hypothesis that seeds dispersed in time may lower predation rates. We predic...

in order to evaluate times and rate applications of zinc fertilizer on quantity and quality of faba bean, an experiment was carried out to form factorial in randomized of complete block design with four replications at farm research of gonbad kavous university during 2009 – 2010. two times of application were including before flowering and beginning of pod setting and five rates of application ...

Meals produced when oil is extracted from seeds in the Brassicaceae have been shown to suppress weeds and soilborne pathogens. These seed meals are commonly used individually as soil amendments; the goal of this research was to evaluate seed meal mixes of Brassica juncea (Bj) and Sinapis alba (Sa) against Meloidogyne incognita. Seed meals from Bj 'Pacific Gold' and Sa 'IdaGold' were tested alon...