1991). These properties include soil bulk density and chemical properties. This study investigated the relationships between corn (Zea mays An objective of site specific management is to apply L.) grain yield and weather over a range of soil rooting depths with appropriate levels of agricultural inputs to localized areas. and without irrigation. The purpose was to test if variability of corn Si...

Zinc (Zn) deficiency is a major problem for many people living on wheat-based diets. Here, we explored whether addition of green manure of red clover and sunflower to a calcareous soil or inoculating a non-indigenous arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) strain may increase grain Zn concentration in bread wheat. For this purpose we performed a multifactorial pot experiment, in which the effects o...

It has long been thought that coarse-grain parallelism is much more efficient than fine-grain parallelism due to the overhead of process (thread) creation, context switching, and synchronization. On the other hand, there are several advantages to fine-grain parallelism: architecture independence, ease of programming, ease of use as a target for code generation, and load-balancing potential. Thi...

The influence of application of increasing doses of selenium (0.05 mg, 0.10 mg and 0.20 mg/kg) into soil in pot experiments, with NPK fertilization of spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L., variety Banti), on the biomass yield (grain, straw, roots) and on selenium accumulation was observed. Selenium in the form of sodium selenite (Na2SeO3·5H2O) and the NPK nutrients in the form of LAD-27, Ca(H2PO4...

Soil amendments can improve the sustainability of agricultural systems by building soil carbon and improving numerous other soil health indicators, including soil structure, water infiltration and retention, bulk density, nutrient availability, and microbial activity. This chapter covers some general considerations relevant to the use of soil amendments followed by a discussion of biosolids, an...

To advance the identification of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) to reduce Cd content in rice (Oryza sativa L.) grains and breed low-Cd cultivars, we developed a novel population consisting of 46 chromosome segment substitution lines (CSSLs) in which donor segments of LAC23, a cultivar reported to have a low grain Cd content, were substituted into the Koshihikari genetic background. The parental...

Bulk element concentrations of whole grain and element spatial distributions at the tissue level were investigated in wheat (Triticum aestivum) grain grown in Zn-enriched soil. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry were used for bulk analysis, whereas micro-proton-induced X-ray emission was used to resolve the two-dimensional l...

Unreasonably high irrigation levels and excessive nitrogen (N) supplementation are common occurrences in the North China Plain that affect winter wheat production. Therefore, a 6-yr-long stationary field experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of irrigation and N regimes on root development and their relationship with soil water and N use in different soil layers. Compared to the no...

Host suitability of commercial sunflower hybrids to Pratylenchus zeae was studied in the field and greenhouse. For comparison, one maize and one grain sorghum inbred line, both susceptible to P. zeae, were included in the greenhouse experiments. Pratylenchus zeae densities extracted from the roots of sunflower hybrids grown in naturally infested soil were low. In the first greenhouse experiment...

In order to investigate the effects of the grain size distribution and the micro-structure of soils on the mechanical characteristics, some static triaxial compression tests were carried out, and then the relationship of stress-strain and the strength behavior of silty sand were compared among undisturbed samples with different grain size distribution, undisturbed and remolded samples with the ...