Life Sciences Commons^™

Lake Mead National Recreation Area Vegetation Monitoring And Management: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Ending December 31, 2005, Margaret N. Rees

Vegetation Monitoring

Executive Summary

• Required reports on sticky buckwheat (Eriogonum viscidulum) and threecorner milkvetch (Astragalus geyeri var. triquetrus) to be submitted through appropriate protocols by December 30, 2005
• Summary report on several other rare plants to be submitted through appropriate protocols by December 30, 2005
• Invasive perennial pepperweed (also called tall whitetop; Lepidium latifolium) documented and treated by Weed Sentry within Black Canyon, Lake Mojave

Sequencing Of Aspergillus Nidulans And Comparative Analysis With A. Fumigatus And A. Oryzae, James E. Galagan, Sarah E. Calvo, Christina Cuomo, Li-Jun Ma, Jennifer R. Wortman, Serafim Batzoglou, Su-In Lee, Meray Baştürkmen, Christina C. Spevak, Vladimir Kapitonov, Jerzy Jurka, Claudio Scazzocchio, Mark Farman, Jonathan Butler, Seth Purcell, Steven D. Harris, Gerhard H. Braus, Oliver Draht, Silke Busch, Christophe D'Enfert, Christiane Bouchier, Gustavo H. Goldman, Deborah Bell-Pedersen, Sam Griffiths-Jones, John H. Doonan, Jaehyuk Yu, Kay Vienken, Arnab Pain, Michael Freitag, Eric U. Selker, David B. Archer, Miguel Á. Peñalva, Berl R. Oakley, Michelle Momany, Toshihiro Tanaka, Toshitaka Kumagai, Kiyoshi Asai, Masayuki Machida, William C. Nierman, David W. Denning, Mark Caddick, Michael Hynes, Mathieu Paoletti, Reinhard Fischer, Bruce Miller, Paul Dyer, Matthew S. Sachs, Stephen A. Osmani, Bruce W. Birren

Department of Plant Pathology: Faculty Publications

The aspergilli comprise a diverse group of filamentous fungi spanning over 200 million years of evolution. Here we report the genome sequence of the model organism Aspergillus nidulans, and a comparative study with Aspergillus fumigatus, a serious human pathogen, and Aspergillus oryzae, used in the production of sake, miso, and soy sauce. Our analysis of genome structure provided a quantitative evaluation of forces driving long-term eukaryotic genome evolution. It also led to an experimentally validated model of mating-type locus evolution, suggesting the potential for sexual reproduction in A. fumigatus and A. oryzae. Our analysis of sequence …

Northeast Research Station Watertown, South Dakota Annual Progress Report, 2005, Agricultural Experiment Station, Plant Science Department

Agricultural Experiment Station and Research Farm Annual Reports

This is the 2005 annual progress report for the Northeast Research Station in Watertown, South Dakota. This report is issued by the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station and the South Dakota State University Plant Science Department. This report includes weather data, yield comparisons, crop performance trials, corn trials, soybean trials, winter wheat performance testing, Barley Foliar information, weed and pest control, herbicide demonstrations, canola and flax variety trials and more.

Northeast Research Station Watertown, South Dakota Annual Progress Report, 2004, Agricultural Experiment Station, Plant Science Department

Agricultural Experiment Station and Research Farm Annual Reports

This is the 2004 annual progress report for the Northeast Research Station in Watertown, South Dakota. This report is issued by the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station and the South Dakota State University Plant Science Department. This report includes weather data, yield comparisons, crop performance trials, corn trials, soybean trials, winter wheat performance testing, Barley Foliar information, weed and pest control, herbicide demonstrations, canola and flax variety trials and more.

Central Crops And Soils Research Station Highmore, South Dakota: Annual Progress Report, 2005, Agricultural Experiment Station, Plant Science Department

Agricultural Experiment Station and Research Farm Annual Reports

This is the 2005 progress report for the Central Crops and Soils Research Station at Highmore, South Dakota State College. This document represents the research conducted at the Station during the 2005 crop season including: temperature and precipitation data, field evaluations of woody plant materials, alfalfa production, winter wheat breeding, oat research, resistance of sunflower germplasm to the red sunflower seed weevil, weed control, fertilizer and soil test effects on soybeans, small grain variety performance trials, evaluation of native and naturalized grasses for reduced-input turf in the Northern Plains, and the Highmore drip irrigation study final report.

Establishment Stand Thresholds For Switchgrass Grown As A Bioenergy Crop, Marty R. Schmer, Kenneth P. Vogel, Robert B. Mitchell, Lowell E. Moser, Kent M. Eskridge, Richard K. Perrin

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is a warm-season (C4) perennial grass and a potential bioenergy crop. On-farm switchgrass field scale trials, which were initiated to obtain economic production information for switchgrass grown as a bioenergy crop in the northern Plains, provided information on establishment year stands and post-establishment year yields and stands both within and across fields and were used to determine if a stand threshold exists for switchgrass grown as a biomass energy crop. Switchgrass was seeded in 10 cropland fields, ranging in size from 3 to 9.5 ha, in Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota in 2000 and …

Forage News [2005-12], Department Of Plant And Soil Sciences, University Of Kentucky

Forage News

• Grazing Conference in Cave City
• Renew KFGC Membership
• National Forage Meetings
• Still Room for Improvement
• Growth Performance by Fall-Calving Cows Grazing Tall Fescue Pastures with Different Proportions Stockpiled Until Late Fall
• Effect of Maturity on Quality of Various Small Grains
• Effect of N Prices on Fertilization of Cool-Season Grasses
• Value and Amount of Nitrogen Fixed by Various Legumes
• Reflections: 2005
• Upcoming Events

Effects Of Common Forage Phenolic Acids On Escherichia Coli O157:H7 Viability In Bovine Feces, J. E. Wells, E. D. Berry, V.H. Varel

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Ruminant animals are carriers of Escherichia coli O157:H7, and the transmission of E. coli O157:H7 from cattle to the environment and to humans is a concern. It is unclear if diet can influence the survivability of E. coliO157:H7 in the gastrointestinal system or in feces in the environment. Feces from cattle fed bromegrass hay or corn silage diets were inoculated with E. coliO157:H7, and the survival of this pathogen was analyzed. When animals consumed bromegrass hay for <1 month, viable E. coliO157:H7 was not recovered after 28 days postinoculation, but when animals consumed the diet for >1 month, E. coli …

Loss Of Nitrate-Nitrogen By Runoff And Leaching For Agricultural Watersheds, M. A. Elrashidi, M. D. Mays, A. Fares, C. A. Seybold, J. L. Harder, S. D. Peaslee, Pam Vanneste

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

The loss of nutrients in runoff and leaching water from agricultural land is a major cause of poor water quality in the United States. Scientists (NRCS) developed a technique to estimate the impact of agricultural watersheds on natural water resources. The objectives were to apply the technique on Wagon Train (WT) watershed in Nebraska to predict: (i) loss of water by surface runoff and subsurface leaching, (ii) loss of nitrate-N from soils by runoff and leaching, and (iii) nitrate-N loading for WT reservoir. The annual loss of water was estimated at 4.32 million m³ for runoff and 0.98 million …

Southeast South Dakota Experiment Farm Annual Progress Report, 2005, Agricultural Experiment Station

Agricultural Experiment Station and Research Farm Annual Reports

This document highlights 32 crop and livestock research and demonstration reports from projects conducted at Southeast Research Farm in 2005. It is published by the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service at South Dakota State University in cooperation with the Southeast South Dakota Experiment Farm Corporation. Reports in this document include information on: temperatures and precipitation data, corn production and performance, soybean research and planting, soil testing, alfalfa yield test, fertilizer testing, herbicide research, crop rotation, sorghum, small grains, livestock research, and pest and weed control.

Center For Grassland Studies Newsletter, Winter 2005, Volume 11, No. 1

Center for Grassland Studies: Newsletters

Grass Seed Production Research in Nebraska Panhandle by David Baltensperger, Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, UNL

Can Perennial Grass Pastures be Profitable in the Great Plains by Rob Mitchell, Ken Vogel, and Gary Varvel, USDA-ARS, Lincoln, NE Terry Klopfenstein (Animal Science), Dick Clark (Agricultural Economics), and Bruce Anderson (Agronomy and Horticulture), UNL

Forum – Monitoring Rangeland Health for an Experiment in Public Land Ownership

2005 Nebraska Grazing Conference to be Aug. 8-9

PGM Program Swings into 2nd Semester

Dates for 7th Nebraska Ranch Practicum Set

Changing Natural Landscapes: Ecological and Human Dimensions

Comparison Of Glomalin And Humic Acid In Eight Native U.S. Soils, K. A. Nichols, S. F. Wright

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Two important extractable fractions of soil organic matter (SOM) are humic acid (HA) and glomalin-related soil protein (glomalin). Optimizing the purity of each fraction is necessary to correlate fraction quantity and molecular characteristics with soil quality. Manipulation of extraction sequence and controlled precipitation of HA were used to evaluate co-extraction of HA and glomalin. Eight bulk soil samples (0 to 10 cm depth) were collected from four U.S. states (Colorado, Nebraska, Maryland, and Georgia). In Experiment 1, glomalin extraction (50 mM citrate, pH 8.0, at 121 'C) was followed by HA extraction (0.1 N NaOH at room temperature), and Experiment …

Emerging Research Techniques & New Instrumentation For Plant Biology, Bruce Bugbee

Techniques and Instruments

We have not achieved an efficient food production system in US Agriculture by manipulating only the environment.

Genetic engineering techniques now allow us to quickly develop new crop cultivars.

The Prairie Naturalist, Volume 37, No.4 December 2005

The Prairie Naturalist

AVIAN COMMUNITY RESPONSE TO CONSTRUCTION OF A NATURALISTIC GOLF COURSE IN TALL GRASS PRAIRIE IN KANSAS ▪ R. J. Robel, S. L. Bye, K. E. Kemp, and S. J. Thien

SECOND REPORT OF THE NORTH DAKOTA BIRD RECORDS COMMITTEE: 2002-2003 ▪ D. Svingen, and R. E. Martin

RECENT RECORDS OF FORMERLY EXTIRPATED CARNIVORES IN NEBRASKA ▪ J. D. Hoffman, and H. H. Genoways

PLAINS HARVEST MOUSE IN NORTH DAKOTA ▪ R. W. Seabloom, and T. L. Shaffer

Book Reviews

A Primer on Prairie Ecology ▪ M. A. Cunningham

Range Wars: Have Prairie Dogs Lost the Battle for the West? ▪ …

Developmental Sequences For Simulating Crop Phenology For Water-Limiting Conditions, Gregory S. Mcmaster, Wally Wilhelm, A. B. Frank

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

The timing, duration, and pace of developmental events, or phenology, are among the many responses of plants to limited soil water. Understanding and predicting plant responses to availability of soil water are important in improving the efficacy of management practices. However, the first steps towards gaining this understanding, summarizing the complete developmental sequence of the shoot apex and correlating the timing of these events, have rarely been reported. Also, the effect of water-limiting conditions on crop phenology and shoot apex development is variable. The objective of this paper is to present the developmental sequence of the wheat (Triticum aestivum …

Climatic Unpredictability And Parasitism Of Caterpillars: Implications Of Global Warming, John Stireman, Lee Dyer, D. Janzen, M. Singer, J. Lill, R. Marquis, R. Ricklefs, G. Gentry, W. Hallwachs, P. Coley, J. Barone, H. Greeney, H. Connahs, P. Barbosa, H. Morais, I. Diniz

Biology Department Faculty Works

Insect outbreaks are expected to increase in frequency and intensity with projected changes in global climate through direct effects of climate change on insect populations and through disruption of community interactions. Although there is much concern about mean changes in global climate, the impact of climatic variability itself on species interactions has been little explored. Here, we compare caterpillar–parasitoid interactions across a broad gradient of climatic variability and find that the combined data in 15 geographically dispersed databases show a decrease in levels of parasitism as climatic variability increases. The dominant contribution to this pattern by relatively specialized parasitoid wasps …

Seagrass–Pathogen Interactions: ‘Pseudo-Induction’ Of Turtlegrass Phenolics Near Wasting Disease Lesions, Latina Steele, Melanie Caldwell, Anne Boettcher, Tom Arnold

Biology Faculty Publications

Marine protists of the genus Labyrinthula cause the seagrass wasting disease, which is associated with regional die-offs of eelgrass Zostera marina and also infects turtlegrass Thalassia testudinum . The ability of seagrasses to resist pathogen attack is determined by multiple factors, which are poorly understood. One factor hypothesized to influence seagrass disease resistance is the presence of (poly)phenolic natural products such as caffeic acid, which inhibits the growth of L. zosterae in in vitro laboratory bioassays. This hypothesis has been supported by reports of pathogen-induced phenolic accumulations in eelgrass Z. marina. To test the response of T. testudinum to …

Sp651-Costs Of Managing A Bermudagrass Football Field In Tennessee, The University Of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service

Commercial Horticulture

This publication is intended to provide sports turf managers and coaches an estimate of the costs of managing an existing bermudagrass football fi eld in Tennessee. Managing a healthy, wear-resistant football field requires routine mowing and fertilization. Bermudagrass football fields are most often maintained with a reel mower set at cutting heights from ¾ to 2 inches. Sports turfs often require more nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) than the soil can supply. Magnesium and iron applications can improve plant color. Applying calcium, a component of plant cell walls, may result in added plant strength. Sulfur, found in …

Sp291-L-Fresh Vegetable Storage For Homeowners, The University Of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service

Home Garden, Lawn, and Landscape

Many vegetables grown in home gardens can be stored fresh, but they must be harvested at the proper maturity and kept at the correct temperature and humidity. In addition, proper ventilation and sanitation must be maintained during storage. Basically, storage is placing harvested vegetables in an environment where the life processes, respiration and water loss, are kept at low levels.

Production And Handling Practices For Safe Produce, Pamela L. Brady, Justin R. Morris

Research Reports and Research Bulletins

The University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture received a grant from the USDA’s Initiative for Future Agriculture and Food Systems program to help small- and medium-sized farms become more profitable and to therefore add stability to the family farm. One approach to doing this is to help farmers growing produce reduce or eliminate safety hazards which may be associated with their products.

Ecological Costs And Benefits Of Defenses In Nectar, Lynn S. Adler, Rebecca E. Irwin

Dartmouth Scholarship

The nectar of many plant species contains defensive compounds that have been hypothesized to benefit plants through a variety of mechanisms. However, the relationship between nectar defenses and plant fitness has not been established for any species. We experimentally manipulated gelsemine, the principal alkaloid of Carolina jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens), in nectar to determine its effect on pollinator visitation, nectar robber visitation, and male and female plant reproduction. We found that nectar robbers and most pollinators probed fewer flowers and spent less time per flower on plants with high compared to low nectar alkaloids. High alkaloids decreased the donation of fluorescent …

Insect Trap: United States Patent, Hogsette Et Al.- November 2005, Jerome Hogsette, David Carlson

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

A safe, indoor trapping device for trapping and killing flying insects can be used in areas containing food, containing animals, for food preparation, etc. The device includes at least one removable trap body, a toxicant panel, and an insect collector.

Bromacil, Ecological Risk Assessment, Final Report, Ensr International

All U.S. Government Documents (Utah Regional Depository)

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), United States Department of the Interior (USDI), is proposing a program to treat vegetation on up to six million acres of public lands annually in 17 western states in the continental United States (US) and Alaska. As part of this program, the BLM is proposing the use of ten herbicide active ingredients (a.i.) to control invasive plants and noxious weeds on approximately one million of the six million acres proposed for treatment. The BLM and its contractor, ENSR, are preparing a Vegetation Treatments Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to evaluate this and other proposed …

Vines For Utah Landscape, Larry A. Sagers

All Archived Publications

No abstract provided.

Designing Hardscapes, Larry A. Sagers

All Archived Publications

No abstract provided.

Life History Traits Of The Threatened Purple Amole (Chlorogalum Purpureum Var. Purpureum), John A. Guretzky, Elizabeth Clark, Darlene Woodbury

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Researchers monitored the threatened plant, purple amole (Chlorogalum purpureum var. purpureum) at Fort Hunter Liggett, California, from 1998 to 2004. The objectives of this research were to complete a statistical analysis of these data to evaluate: (1) demographics; (2) trends in population density; and (3) the relationship of purple amole to associated species, biological soil crusts, and disturbance. Overall, purple amole was most likely to flower and have greater seed production when it attained about 8 leaves or widths of 7 to 8 mm for its widest leaf, revealing a clear relationship between plant size and successful reproduction and seed …

Cattle Grazing And Tracked Vehicle Training On Central And Southwest U.S. Army Lands, John A. Guretzky, Jeffrey Fehmi, Alan Anderson

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Sustainability of training lands continues to be a primary concern for natural resource managers on Army installations. Tracked vehicle training, the main disturbance of grasslands, does not occur in isolation from other land uses including cattle grazing. Yet, no documented studies exist examining the interactive effects of these activities on soils and vegetation. The objective of this research was to begin filling this knowledge gap. This report reviews the lit-erature documenting the impacts of tracked vehicle training and cattle grazing on soils and grassland plant communities and discusses potential interactive effects. Responses to tracked vehicle training generally included increased soil …

Arbors, Bowers Gazebos And Trellises, Larry A. Sagers

All Archived Publications

No abstract provided.

Disease Resistance Conferred By The Expression Of A Gene Encoding A Synthetic Peptide In Transgenic Cotton (Gossypium Hirsutum L.) Plants, Kanniah Rajasekaran, Jeffrey W. Cary, Jesse M. Jaynes, Thomas E. Cleveland

Faculty and Research Publications

Fertile, transgenic cotton plants expressing the synthetic antimicrobial peptide, D4E1, were produced through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. PCR products and Southern blots confirmed integration of the D4E1 gene, while RT-PCR of cotton RNA confirmed the presence of D4E1 transcripts. In vitro assays with crude leaf protein extracts from T0 and T1 plants confirmed that D4E1 was expressed at sufficient levels to inhibit the growth of Fusarium verticillioides and Verticillium dahliae compared to extracts from negative control plants transformed with pBI-d35SΩ-uidA-nos (CGUS). Although in vitro assays did not show control of pre-germinated spores of Aspergillus flavus, bioassays with cotton …

Sp663 Tree Planting Procedure For Small, Bare-Root Seedings, The University Of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service

Forestry, Trees, and Timber

Tree seedlings receive foremost care while growing in a managed nursery: fertile soil; ample moisture; and weed, insect and disease control. Lifting seedlings out of this comfort zone shocks them. Consider: they are dislodged from the soil; their roots are often torn; they are handled several times; they are packaged, shipped, exposed to wind and heat, and placed in planting bags or machine buckets; their roots are unveiled to open air; and they are often replanted in harsh soil where they are left to high temperatures with the hope of adequate precipitation for sustenance through the first few growing seasons.