Plant Sciences Commons^™

Summaries Of Arkansas Cotton Research 2016, Fred Bourland

Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Series

No abstract provided.

Control Of Glyphosate-Resistant Common Ragweed (Ambrosia Artemisiifolia L.) In Glufosinate-Resistant Soybean [Glycine Max (L.) Merr], Ethann R. Barnes, Stevan Z. Knezevic, Peter H. Sikkema, John L. Lindquist, Amit J. Jhala

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Common ragweed emerges early in the season in Nebraska, USA and is competitive with soybean; therefore, preplant herbicides are important for effective control. Glyphosate has been used as a preplant control option; however, confirmation of glyphosate-resistant (GR) common ragweed in Nebraska necessitates evaluating other herbicide options. The objectives of this study were to (1) evaluate the efficacy of preplant (PP) herbicides followed by (fb) glufosinate alone or in tank-mixture with imazethapyr, acetochlor, or S-metolachlor applied post-emergence (POST) for control of GR common ragweed in glufosinate-resistant soybean; (2) their effect on common ragweed density, biomass, and soybean yield; and (3) the …

Pinching And Spacing Effects On Cut Sunflower (Helianthus Annuus) Production In East Texas, Rebecca B. Burnett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Three experiments evaluated pinching and spacing on Helianthus annuus in East Texas to determine their effects on growth and development. Experiment 1 was designed to determine the effects of pinching nodes 1, 2, 3, or 4 on ‘Pro Cut Gold’ sunflowers. Results from experiment 1 showed non-pinched plants produced marketable stem lengths and flower sizes, while pinched plants’ stem length, stem diameter, flower diameter, and disk diameter decreased compared to the non-pinched plants. The objective for experiment 2 was to evaluate pinching and spacing treatments on ‘Pro Cut Gold’ sunflowers. All spacings for non-pinched plants in experiment 2 produced marketable …

Evaluating Mine Soil Prepared By Scraper Pans For Herbaceous Plants And Pine Seedlings At An East Texas Lignite Surface Mine, Hannah Z. Angel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since 1974, Luminant Mining Company, LLC (Luminant) has planted over 38.7 million trees on its reclaimed lignite surface mine operations in Texas. For decades, the use of improved reclamation techniques on Luminant’s mined lands have resulted in over 31,160 ha reclaimed to forests, wildlife habitat, and pastures with productivity levels similar to those found on unmined lands. The development of new reclamation methodologies offers opportunities to further improve productivity of planted trees at Luminant’s Martin Lake Oak Hill Mine in east Texas. The conventional haulback or ‘truck shovel’ reclamation method uses haul trucks for the selective transport and placement of …

Impact Of Seed Protein Alleles From Three Soybean Sources On Seed Composition And Agronomic Traits, Lillian F. Brzostowski, Timothy I. Pruski, James Specht, Brian W. Diers

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Evaluation of seed protein alleles in soybean populations showed that an increase in protein concentration is generally associated with a decrease in oil concentration and yield.

Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] meal is one of the most important plant-based protein sources in the world. Developing cultivars high in seed protein concentration and seed yield is a difficult task because the traits have an inverse relationship. Over two decades ago, a protein quantitative trait loci (QTL) was mapped on chromosome (chr) 20, and this QTL has been mapped to the same position in several studies and given the confirmed QTL …

Impact Of Nitrogen Application Timing On Corn Production, John E. Sawyer, Daniel W. Barker, John P. Lundvall

John E. Sawyer

Water quality issues have renewed interest in timing of nitrogen (N) application as a means to improve use efficiency in corn and reduce losses. Improved economic return is also desired as N fertilization is one of the most costly inputs to corn production. Time of fertilizer application is a component of the site-specific 4R nutrient management stewardship programs. In Iowa, the Nutrient Reduction Strategy has a 7% (37% std. dev.) nitrate-N reduction with a 0% (3% std. dev.) corn yield change for sidedress compared to pre-plant N application (SP 0435A).

Crop Responses To Amisorb In The North Central Region, Sylvie Brouder, Robert Dowdy, Dave Franzen, Gary Hergert, Robert Hoeft, Maurice Horton, Keith Kelling, David Mengel, George Rehm, John Sawyer, Peter Scharf, Darryl Warnacke, David Whitney

John E. Sawyer

Originally used to prevent scale in boilers, carpramid or thermal polyaspartate (copoly[(3-carboxypropionamide)( 2-carboxylmethyl) acetamide)] was brought to agriculture under the trade names AmiSorb and Magnet. It claimed to increase nutrient uptake through artificially increasing the volume of soil occupied by roots through increased root branching and root hair development. Under controlled hydroponic or greenhouse conditions, the use of carpramid increased nutrient uptake, some yield determining factors such as wheat tillering and in some cases, crop yield. Extensive field testing from 1996 to 1998 under various nutrient regimes, placements, forms, and timings resulted in very inconsistent performance. Averaged across all experiments …

Nitrogen Fertilizer Rate Effects On Soil Organic Carbon In Iowa Continuous Corn And Corn-Soybean Systems, Hanna J. Poffenbarger, Daniel W. Barker, Matthew J. Helmers, Fernando E. Miguez, John E. Sawyer, Johan Six, Michael J. Castellano

John E. Sawyer

Nitrogen fertilizer rate is a key factor affecting soil organic C (SOC) in corn-based cropping systems. The objective of this study was to determine the change in SOC in response to long-term N rates for continuous corn and corn-soybean cropping systems at two sites in Iowa. Soil samples were collected to a depth of 15 cm in 1999 and again in 2014 after 15 years of corn N rate treatments ranging from 0 to 269 kg ha^-1. The soil samples were analyzed for total C and N concentrations. For continuous corn at both sites, the average annual change …

A Public–Industry Partnership For Enhancing Corn Nitrogen Research And Datasets: Project Description, Methodology, And Outcomes, Newell R. Kitchen, John F. Shanahan, Curtis J. Ransom, Christopher J. Bandura, Gregory M. Bean, James J. Camberato, Paul R. Carter, Jason D. Clark, Richard B. Ferguson, Fabian G. Fernandez, David W. Franzen, Carrie A.M. Laboski, Emerson D. Nafziger, Zhisheng Qing, John E. Sawyer, Matt Shafer

Agronomy, Horticulture and Plant Science Faculty Publications

Due to economic and environmental consequences of N lost from fertilizer applications in corn (Zea mays L.), considerable public and industry attention has been devoted to the development of N decision tools. Needed are research and databases and associated metadata, at numerous locations and years to represent a wide geographic range of soil and weather scenarios, for evaluating tool performance. The goals of this research were to conduct standardized corn N rate response field studies to evaluate the performance of multiple public-domain N decision tools across diverse soils and environmental conditions, develop and publish new agronomic science for improved …

Comparison Of Understory Chemical And Mechanical Treatments To Promote Regeneration Of Desirable Forestland Species, Rebecca Rachael Tyler

MSU Graduate Theses

Invasive woody plants and trees can have a negative impact on desired tree regeneration in the understory of forest stands, and forage density in grassland sites. An assessment of chemical and mechanical treatments on woody plants in the understory of forestland and in grassland is needed. Two experiments were set up in two forest stands and in two grassland/forest edge sites, with two treatment times during the growing season in the first year of the study. On the forestland sites, chemical and mechanical treatments were applied on undesired woody plants to see if they effect the regeneration of desired tree …

Msh1-Mediated Non-Genetic Phenotypic Variation In Plants: Prospects For Epigenetic Breeding In Sorghum Bicolor, Dikungwa Ketumile

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Sorghum is the fifth most important cereal crop grown in the world, and is the primary staple food for many people in developing countries. Like other major crops, its improvement is constrained by depletion of genetic diversity within breeding germplasm. Investigated in this study is the unique creation of non-genetic phenotypic variation through altering MutS Homolog1 (MSH1), a plant-specific gene, and the potential it presents for sorghum improvement. Suppression of MSH1 results in non-genetic developmental reprogramming. The derived MSH1 memory lines, when used in crossing, result in heritable phenotypic variation that enhances plant vigor and agronomic performance. A …

B. R. Wells Arkansas Rice Research Studies 2016, R. J. Norman, K.A. K. Moldenhauer

Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Series

No abstract provided.

Arkansas Wheat Cultivar Performance Tests 2016-2017, R. E. Mason, R. G. Miller, D. E. Moon, J. P. Kelley

Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Series

Wheat cultivar performance tests are conducted each year in Arkansas by the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences. The tests provide information to companies developing cultivars and marketing seed within the state and aid the Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service in formulating cultivar recommendations for small-grain producers.

A Laboratory-Scale Study On The Production Of High-Value Products From Broiler Litter Involving Solid-State Anaerobic Digestion And Mushroom Cultivation, Joe Barrett Carter Iii

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is a need to investigate alternate uses and treatments of broiler litter that lessen environmental impacts and decrease costs associated with its disposal. Anaerobic digestion is a biological process in which organic material is converted to a renewable fuel source. However, the substrate for anaerobic digestion often requires some form or pretreatment. Certain types of fungus have been investigated as a pretreatment for anaerobic digestion, one of which is Pleurotis ostreatus or the oyster mushroom, which also produces an edible fruiting body. Thus, this study was performed to investigate the use of broiler litter for oyster mushroom cultivation and …

Studies In Blackberry: Development And Implementation Of A Phenotyping Protocol For Blackberry Seedling Populations And Impact Of Time Of Day Of Harvest On Red Drupelet Reversion For University Of Arkansas Blackberry Genotypes, Melinda Yin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There are two major public blackberry (Rubus L. subgenus rubus Watson) breeding programs in the United States: one at the University of Arkansas (UA) and another at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service Horticultural Crops Research Unit (USDA-ARS HCRU) based in Corvallis, OR. The germplasm and breeding objectives of these two breeding programs are diverse, but frequent collaboration necessitated a standardized method of characterizing plant and fruit traits. A phenotyping protocol for blackberry was developed at UA and implemented for two years on UA seedling populations. The protocol included plant traits (health, vigor, estimated crop load, peak bloom …

Application Of X-Ray Imaging As A Technique For Fissure Detection In Rough Rice Kernels, Zephania R. Odek

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fissured rice kernels break during milling, leading to head rice yield (HRY) reductions. Conventional fissure detection instruments cannot be used to observe fissures in rough rice kernels, the form in which rice in normally dried and stored. X-rays can penetrate hulls allowing visualization of the internal structure of a rough rice kernel. This study evaluated the capability of X-ray imaging to adequately detect fissures in rough rice and established a correlation between HRY and the fissured kernel percentage (FKP) in a rough rice sample. Fifteen long-grain rice cultivars, harvested in Arkansas in 2015 and 2016 were dried using heated air …

Characterization Of The Relationships Between Soybean Yield, Trifoliolate Leaf Chloride Concentration, And Cultivar Chloride Inclusion/Exclusion Rating, Dillon Cox

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Chloride toxicity is recognized as yield limiting problem in soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] production. Limited information is available to accurately diagnose and manage Cl toxicity. The only recommendation for Cl toxicity management is to plant an excluder cultivar, however the cultivar Cl sensitivity rating system (excluder, includer, and mixed) does not appear to capture the variability in cultivar Cl tolerance. The objectives of this research were to i) develop critical tissue-Cl concentrations in which yield loss occurs for excluder and includer cultivars and ii) investigate the variability in cultivar Cl ratings. A study was conducted across five site-years using …

The Cost Of Forward Contracting In Mississippi River Barge Freight And Cif Nola Markets, Bradley John Isbell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Grain elevators often use paper markets to mitigate the risk of (or hedge) their cash grain positions, as well as establish a profit margin through basis trading. Typically, merchandisers use futures or forward contracts to perform these transactions. However, in order to liquidate a cash grain position, grain transportation must be arranged in order to deliver the grain to the buyer. For elevators located along the Mississippi River system selling to Gulf export elevators in New Orleans, that mode of grain transportation is most likely river barge. Contracts for barges are bought and sold by grain merchants either directly with …

Mushroom Inoculation On Switchgrass Feedstock During Storage: Effects Of Subsequent Pre-Processing For Intended Biofuels Production, Amandeep Singh Turay

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this project was to examine the effect of fungal treatment and liquid hot water pretreatment of switchgrass combine in view of increasing glucose release. The fungal treatment consisted of incubating Pleurotus ostreatus in square switchgrass bales, at 50% moisture content for 25 days, 54 days, and 82 days. The digestibility of the switchgrass biomass was subsequently evaluated using Accelerase 1500 enzyme. Lignin is an important barrier to enzymatic hydrolysis, and it was stipulated that incubation with P. ostreatus would disrupt plant cell walls, resulting in enhanced saccharification. Three different concentrations of P. ostreatus were evaluated: 0%, 2%, …

Genomic And Physiological Approaches To Improve Drought Tolerance In Soybean, Avjinder Kaler

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Drought stress is a major global constraint for crop production, and improving crop tolerance to drought is of critical importance. Direct selection of drought tolerance among genotypes for yield is limited because of low heritability, polygenic control, epistasis effects, and genotype by environment interactions. Crop physiology can play a major role for improving drought tolerance through the identification of traits associated with drought tolerance that can be used as indirect selection criteria in a breeding program. Carbon isotope ratio (δ13C, associated with water use efficiency), oxygen isotope ratio (δ18O, associated with transpiration), canopy temperature (CT), canopy wilting, and canopy coverage …

Evaluating Methods For Quantifying Evapotranspiration In Arkansas Rice, Colby Reavis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this study was to evaluate different methods for quantifying evapotranspiration (ET) in commercial rice fields using different irrigation regimes. The rice fields were located in south central Arkansas. The different irrigation regimes were alternate wetting and drying (AWD) and continuous flooding (CF). Alternate wetting and drying and conventional flooding estimates of ET were 602 mm and 570 mm, respectively, based on field observations using eddy covariance. Models used to estimate ET estimated values between 498 and 653 mm for the 2015 growing season. The Penman Monteith actual evapotranspiration model (PM AET) performed best when compared to the …

Evaluation Of Screening Methods To Detect Heat Stress In Diverse Cotton Genotypes, Mathilda M. Van Der Westhuizen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) is sensitive to heat stress (HS) during reproductive development. The objective of this study was to evaluate different screening methods for identification of heat tolerance in cotton genotypes. Three growth chamber studies and four field trials were conducted from 2014 to 2017 using genotypes Arkot 9704, VH260, DP 210 B2RF and DP393. Measurements were made of membrane leakage (ML), chlorophyll fluorescence (ChlF), glutathione reductase (GR), and sucrose concentration. In the growth chambers, measurements were made at 30 and 40°C and at 2, 4 and 6 hours of HS, as well as 3 and 7 days after …

Genomic Approaches For Improvement Of Understudied Grasses, Keenan Amundsen, Gautam Sarath, Teresa Donze-Reiner

Teresa Donze-Reiner

No abstract provided.

Induction And Suppression Of Antiviral Rna Silencing By Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus, Sergio M. Gabriel Peralta

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) is an emerging pathogen with wide host range and one of the most important viruses of plants. Information regarding processing of negative single stranded RNA viruses such as TSWV in the RNA silencing pathway remains limited. In nature TSWV is only transmitted by thrips as vectors and since infection occurs in both thrips and plants, an experimental system to transmit using thrips and the detection of TSWV were established. In order to understand the processing of TSWV in the RNA silencing pathway, Arabidopsis thaliana as a model plant was used in the genetic analysis against …

Skeleton Weed Program: Annual Report To Grain Growers 2016/2017, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Biosecurity published reports

All program milestones have been met and the program has been delivered under budget.

As stated in the 2015/16 Annual Report – the program budget has been set at its current level of (approximately) $3.5m for the foreseeable future and program activities need to be framed within this parameter.

The Grains, Seeds and Hay Industry Management Committee (GSH IMC) believes the current program is delivering the best value for the funding provided and is achieving the Project Outcomes of eradication (where possible), management (on infested sites), and limiting the spread of skeleton weed across the wheatbelt.

There has been no …

Early Growth Stages Salinity Stress Tolerance In Cm72 X Gairdner Doubled Haploid Barley Population, Tefera T. Angessa, Xiao-Qi Zhang, Gaofeng Zhou, Sue Broughton, Wenying Zhang, Chengdao Li

Grain and Other Field Crops Research Articles

A doubled haploid (DH) population of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) generated from salinity tolerant genotype CM72 and salinity sensitive variety Gairdner was studied for salinity stress tolerance at germination, seedling emergence and first leaf full expansion growth stages. Germination study was conducted with deionized water, 150 mM and 300 mM NaCl treatments. Seedling stage salinity tolerance was conducted with three treatments: control, 150 mM NaCl added at seedling emergence and first leaf full expansion growth stages. Results from this study revealed transgressive phenotypic segregations for germination percentage and biomass at seedling stage. Twelve QTL were identified on chromosomes 2H–6H each …

A Smartphone-Based Device For Measuring Soil Organic Matter, Meng Lu

Meng Lu

The project evaluated the potential of utilizing a smartphone-based system for the in-field analysis of Soil Organic Matter. Although it demonstrated that the performance of the smartphone-based spectrometer can be comparable to commercial spectrometers, the results suggest that it is challenging to identify the spectral “signatures” of the SOM due to the morphology and moisture variation of soil samples.

Genomic Approaches For Improvement Of Understudied Grasses, Keenan Amundsen, Gautam Sarath, Teresa Donze-Reiner

Biology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Winter Grazing Management, Stephen K. Barnhart, James R. Russell, Douglas L. Karlen, Michael J. Tidman

Douglas L Karlen

Why winter grazing? Beef cow herd and sheep flock records show that winter feeding costs are livestock producers' single largest production expense. Managing through winter weather while keeping feeding costs low is an essential part of maintaining a profitable operation. Iowa's climate generally allows forage growth only during a 7-to-8 month period. Extending the grazing of this forage--even an extra 3 or 4 weeks in late autumn and winter--is an economical way to maintain or increase livestock profitability. Some producers extend the grazing season by using stockpiled forage, whereas others use crop residue, and many combine the use of stockpiled …

Protocol For Enrichment Of The Membrane Proteome Of Mature Tomato Pollen, Puneet Paul, Palak Chaturvedi, Anida Mesihovic, Arindam Ghatak, Wolfram Weckwerth, Enrico Schleiff

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

We established and elaborated on a method to enrich the membrane proteome of mature pollen from economically relevant crop using the example of Solanum lycopersicum (tomato). To isolate the pollen protein fraction enriched in membrane proteins, a high salt concentration (750 mM of sodium chloride) was used. The membrane protein-enriched fraction was then subjected to shotgun proteomics for identification of proteins, followed by in silico analysis to annotate and classify the detected proteins.