Most nutrient enrichment studies in aquatic systems have focused on autotrophic food webs in systems where primary producers dominate the resource base. We tested the heterotrophic response to longterm nutrient enrichment in a forested, headwater stream. Our study design consisted of 2 years of pretreatment data in a reference and treatment stream and 2 years of continuous nitrogen (N) + phosph...

Rhododendron longipedicellatum is a narrow endemic species and a subject of urgent demand in the domestic market and overseas. Its fascinating shapes, brilliantly gilvous flowers, and unusual flowering time endow this species with extremely high ornamental value. However, only five wild populations of R. longipedicellatum surviving in limestone habitat have been found through elaborate field in...

We have previously analysed expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from non-acclimated (NA) and cold-acclimated (CA) Rhododendron leaves, and identified highly abundant complementary DNAs (cDNAs) possibly involved in cold acclimation. A potentially significant, but relatively unexplored, application of these EST data sets is the study of moderately abundant cDNAs, such as those picked only 1-3 times fr...

The natural hybridization that occurs between two sympatric species of Rhododendron subgenus Hymenanthes in Yunnan, China, was investigated. In field observations, it was noted that the putative hybrids between Rhododendron delavayi (Franch.) and Rhododendron cyanocarpum (Franch.) W.W.Smith had intermediate morphologies. On the basis of morphology, chloroplast DNA (trnL-rpl32) and nuclear DNA (...

The biological control is an alternative measure to agrochemicals to control fungal pathogens in agricultural production. We recently reported the utilization of an actinomycete to the biological control in horticultural plant. Tissue-cultured seedlings of horticultural rhododendron suffer from significant damage caused by Pestalotiopsis sydowiana, a major pathogen of rhododendron, during the a...

Rosebay rhododendron (Rhododendron maximum L.) is an ericaceous shrub commonly found in riparian areas of the Appalachian Mountains. After more than a century of fire exclusion in the U.S., the distribution of R. maximum and its dominance of forest understories have increased. Rhododendron expansion has caused a decline in overstory tree regeneration and the potential for dangerous fuel conditi...