Life Sciences Commons^™

Crop Updates 2009 - Cereals, Jeff Baldock, Doug Edmeades, Mark Seymour, Paul Carmody, Ian Pritchard, Alan Meldrum, Michael Robertson, Roger Lawes, Rob Sands, Peter White, Felicity Byrne, Andrew Bathgate, Kedar Adhikari, Tanveer Khan, Stuart Morgan, Alan Harris, P. Gaur, K. M. H. Siddique, H. Clarke, N. C. Turner, W. Macleod, S. Morgan, Chris Veitch, Tony Leonforte, Kith Jayasena, Geoff Thomas, Rob Loughman, Kazue Tanaka, Ravjit Khangura, M. Amjad, Richard Oliver, Dusty Severtson, Peter Mangano, John Botha, Brenda Coutts, Manisha Shankar, Kasia Rybak, Michael Baker, Andrea Hills, Shahajahan Miyan, Peter Portmann, Nicole Rice, Robert Henry, Jeff J. Russell, B. H. Paynter, Linda Price, Brenda Shackley, Vicki Scanlan, Darshan Sharma, Christine Zaicou-Kunesch

Crop Updates

This session covers twenty seven papers from different authors:

PLENARY

1. Building soil carbon for productivity and implications for carbon accounting, Jeff Baldock, CSIRO Land and Water, Adelaide, SA

2. Fact or Fiction: Who is telling the truth and how to tell the difference, Doug Edmeades, agKnowledge Ltd, Hamilton

3. Four decades of crop sequence trials in Western Australia, Mark Seymour,Department of Agriculture and Food

BREAK CROPS

4. 2008 Break Crops survey Report, Paul Carmody,Development Officer, Department of Agriculture and Food

5. Attitudes of Western Australian wheatbelt growers to ‘Break Crops’, Paul Carmody and Ian …

Carbon Dioxide Expulsion By Ceanothus Spinosus In Response To Predawn Sunlight, Eian Carter, Jon Pauwels, Brittany Wilkins

Featured Research

In our experiment we studied the respiratory qualities of green bark ceanothus (Ceanothus spinosus). Plants are generally thought to undergo respiration during the night, building up carbon dioxide stores that are released in response to light. In resprouts with large root crowns, such as C. spinosus, we expected to see large amounts of carbon dioxide released right after dawn. This can be shown with the use of a portable gas exchange system. In C. spinosus, we compared normal respiration rates, based on carbon dioxide expulsion, to values obtained at predawn. We were able to show that …

Soil Salinity And Stomatal Conductance On Chaparral Plants, Ron King, Lisa Malyak, Kelly Rausch

Featured Research

In our experiment we evaluated the soil salinity and corresponding stomatal conductance rates of Malosma laurina and Rhus integrifolia located near the coast and farther inland. Our prediction was that stomatal conductance would vary with the change in location of each species. Stomatal conductance was measured using a simple diffusion porometer and soil salinity was measured using a refractometer. We concluded that soil salinity caused a decline in stomatal conductance in both chaparral species. M. laurina was also found to be more sensitive to an increase in soil salinity, as its stomatal conductance rates declined more than that of R. …

Measuring Water Use Efficiency In Large And Small Leaves Of Malosma Laurina, Caitlin Ishibashi, Dan Kaczrowski, Evan Mattiansen

Featured Research

Our study set out to compare Water Use Efficiency (WUE) levels of Malosma laurina plants in both small and large leaves. We collected a total of 3 data sets, with each set consisting of 5 small leaves and 5 large leaves from a single specimen of Malosma laurina located on Pepperdine’s campus. Parameters including transpiration and photosynthesis were measured to calculate WUE of small and large leaves using an LI- 6400 Gas Exchange System. We hypothesized that small leaves would have a higher WUE rate than large leaves of the M. laurina. Analysis of this data via a paired …

The Effect Of Hydraulic Lift In Quercus Agrifolia On The Health Of Venegasia Carpesioides, Kelly Donovan, Brittany Wagner

Featured Research

Hydraulic lift was studied in live and dead Quercus agrifolia (Coastal Live Oak) in order to test its impact on surrounding Venegasia carpesioides (Canyon Sunflower). Hydraulic lift causes soil moisture to rise around the base of deep-rooted plants where neighboring plants can utilize this excess water. We predicted that the hydraulic lift of the Coastal Live Oak would increase soil moisture, causing higher stomatal conductance and higher water potential in nearby plants. Pvalues of .5258 and .6392 indicated there were no significant differences in soil moisture or in stomatal conductance of the Canyon Sunflowers. A p-value of .0378 showed a …

The Effects Of Light Intensity And Color Absorption Of Diurnal Leaf Movements Of Malva Parviflora, Amy Lawrence, Ben Young, Matthew Yarborough

Featured Research

Our group measured the heliotropic response rate of the Malva parviflora under various light environments in order to see the effect that light color and intensity had on daily leaf movement. In our experiment we measured the leaf angle of plants under white, blue, red and green light, as well as plants under shade, over a specific duration of time in order to determine the rate of change. We ran a One-Way Analysis of Variance on leaf angle for light color as well as coverage at a 0.05 level using SPSS 17.0. The ANOVA test showed no significance for light …

Comparison Of Uva Absorbance In Sun And Shade Leaves, James Newton, Kevin Rivera, James Kim

Featured Research

In observing chaparral species’ resistance to abiotic plant stresses, this investigation sought to study plant defense against UVA radiation in sun and shade leaves. We predicted that sun leaves would have higher absorbance of UV radiation considering their day-long exposure to sunlight.

UVA (350nm-400nm) absorbance in sun and shade leaves of Heteromeles arbutifolia and Malosma laurina were measured using an integrating sphere. Four leaves from each group were surveyed for reflectance and absorbance. Using the spectrophotometer, reflectance in the green wavelengths (500-600nm) was measured and divided by reflectance in the red (600-700nm) to give a quantitative estimation of the redness …