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Taxonomic And Phylogenetic Diversity Of Pitcher Plant Bogs In Georgia's Coastal Plain, Melanie Flood

Theses and Dissertations

Diversity studies via floristic survey and taxonomic metrics have proven essential for discerning community composition and biodiversity, however, phylogenetic analyses are necessary to reveal underlying evolutionary change and potential community assembly patterns. Pitcher plant bogs are highly diverse, highly understudied habitats that contain numerous listed and at-risk plant and animal species of Georgia.

In this study I investigated the taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity of pitcher plant bogs by asking the following questions:

1) What is the taxonomic diversity of pitcher plant bogs,

2) What is the dispersion of phylogenetic diversity within bog habitats, and

3) Does taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity …

The Planted Catalog: The Role Of The Botanical Garden In Botany, Douglas Tuers

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

This article will investigate the role of the botanical garden in botany. What its role is and how it fills it. This article will take the Missouri Botanical Garden as a case study, drawing heavily from archival material compromised mostly of letters between Henry Shaw and the prominent botanists of his day. This study also draws on the prominent histories of the Missouri Botanical Garden. The analysis use the philosophical tradition around reference in logic and language. This study argues that the botanical garden is a bridge between locality and herbaria. The order of the flora travels to the locality …

Analysis Of The Attitude Of Farmers Towards Innovations In The Management Of Grasslands In Poland, P. Goliński, A. Van Den Pol-Van Dasselaar, A. Paszkowski, B. Golińska

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Innovations in the management of grasslands in Poland are important to preserve them as a source of different ecosystem services. In the farmers point of view the most promising is forage production for herbivores, particularly dairy cows. Individual farmers have different opinions about innovations. To stimulate innovations in grassland-based farming systems in Poland, it is important to determine the drivers for their promotion and to define the barriers to overcome problems by their implementation. Analysis of the attitude of Polish farmers towards innovations on grasslands were conducted within the H2020 Inno4Grass project. The majority of respondents were young and had …

Adaptive Rotational Grazing And The Story Of The Regrazed Grass Plant, L. M. Porensky, H. Wilmer, D. J. Augustine, J. D. Derner, M. Fernández-Giménez, David D. Briske, Carm Stakeholder Group

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Livestock stocking rates and decisions about how to move animals in time and space impact plant responses to livestock grazing. We report on a ranch-scale collaborative experiment comparing adaptive rotational grazing management to season-long continuous grazing during a 4.5-month grazing period during the growing season. As part of this project, stakeholders and scientists worked together to articulate their hypotheses about the mechanisms linking rotational grazing with expected vegetation outcomes. Several stakeholders expected rotational grazing to enhance the production and diversity of grazing-sensitive perennial grass species. The main hypothesized mechanism underlying this expectation was that rotation grazing should reduce regrazing of …

A Scalable And Participatory Sustainable Rangeland Management Toolkit With A Holistic And Multidisciplinary Approach To Rehabilitate Degraded Rangelands, Mounir Louhaichi, Mouldi Gamoun, Sawsan Hassan

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Rangelands contribute significantly toward improving livelihoods, offering food security, trade and tourism for pastoral communities. Numerous challenges include poor government policies, loss of indigenous knowledge and top-down approaches toward sustainable rangeland rehabilitation that often fail to consider local development adoption and sustainability. In such situations, effective management is needed for sustainable rangeland ecosystem goods and services in a context characterized by rainfall unreliability, poor soil nutrient status and high uncontrolled grazing. This paper presents a new comprehensive toolkit for identifying and combining suitable and site-specific interventions aimed at reversing the trend of degraded arid rangelands. This toolbox is founded on …

Pastoralist Use Of Reseeded Fields For Additional Resilience To Climate Variability Through Alternate Livelihood Activities, D. W. Githu, J. S. Fehmi, M. Mcclaran, M. Elizabeth, A. Josephson

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Land degradation, climate variability, socio-economic changes and population increase are some of the factors that shrink grazing lands making forage availability less predictable and affecting the resilience of pastoralists communities. Reseeding as an intervention can rehabilitate degraded lands for profitable use through offering pastoralists alternative sources of livelihood and encourage livelihood diversification. This study evaluated two pastoral communities, the Tugen and the Njemps from Baringo County, Kenya, who have owned, managed and used reseeded fields to study the dynamics of reseeding land. A total of 193 pastoralist households were interviewed. These two pastoral communities used their fields for: dry season …

Scientific And Technological Reasons, Contents And Corresponding Policies Of Constructing “Coastal Grass Belt”, Weihua Xu, Jianlin Wang, Xiaojing Liu, Qi Xie, Weicai Yang, Xiaofeng Cao, Zhensheng Li

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Not only the grain rations must be secured absolutely in China, but also the feed grains. However, the limited arable land resource in China determines that grass planting shall not "compete for land with staple food". Planting high quality salt-tolerant forage grass on the saline wasteland and developing animal husbandry production can not only meet the demand of increasing proportion of animal protein in Chinese diet structure, but more importantly, it can help to solve the problems of insufficient forage planting and import over-dependence. Hence it plays an important role in guaranteeing national food security. Therefore, it is necessary to …

The Role Of Improved Forages In Solving The Water Scarcity Issue Of 4 Billion People, S. Douxchamps, A. Notenbaert, J. A. Cardoso, M. Romero, M. Peters

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Global animal production requires about 2422 Gm³ of water per year. Most of this volume is used by cattle, with 30% used in the beef sector and another 19% in the dairy sector. At the same time, four billion people suffer from severe water scarcity, raising the flag on diverting an important part of the water globally to livestock production. Livestock-water interactions have therefore gained a prominent profile and fuelled discussions on the water footprint of livestock. A series of studies on the most important components of the livestock water footprint have shown that globally more than 90% of …

Spring Forage Stash Module To Prevent Forage Crisis On Uruguayan Livestock Systems: An Evaluation Based On Model Simulations, M. Pereira Machín, F. Dieguez Cameroni

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

In Uruguay, rangeland cattle production systems support national economy by beef exportation chain and economic inputs to the country. Soil hydric stress episodes results to forage crisis on grassland-based production systems, having high impact on its trajectory and leaving sequels at several farm levels mainly on rearing cattle systems in drought sensitive regions of the country. In that context, the proposal is to create a spring forage stash module, with a simple management rules as a mechanism to build stability to farms and to buffering drought impact. The concept is to differ spring forage (season with low variation coefficient on …

Perennial Forage Grasses Response To Deficit Irrigation As An Alternative For Water-Limited Conditions Of Southern Chile, Rafael López-Olivari, Fernando Ortega-Klose

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Perennial grasses are an important pasture forage source for the animal production industry around the world. However, the lack of available water limits the use and efficiency of the water resource for maximizing the forage yield. Furthermore, the highest perennial grasses production is obtained in southern Chile, where the frequency and intensity of the rainfalls has been significantly diminished in the main growing period. Thus, the purpose of this research was to evaluate the responses of forage yield (FY) and irrigation water use efficiency (I_WUE) under different levels of water stress on perennial grasses sown …

Quantification Of Methane Emissions From Indoor-Fed Fogera Dairy Cows Using Laser Methane Detector, N. Kobayashi, F. Hou, A. Tsunekawa, Tianhai Yan, F. Tegegne, A. Tassew, Y. Mekuriaw, S. Mekuriaw, B. Hunegnaw, W. Mekonnen, T. Ichinohe

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Portable laser methane detectors (LMDs) may be an economical means of estimating CH₄ emissions from ruminants. Here, we validated an LMD-based approach and then used that approach to evaluate CH₄ emissions from indigenous dairy cows in a dryland area of Ethiopia. First, we validated our LMD-based approach in Simmental crossbred beef cattle (n = 2) housed in respiration chambers and fed either a high- or low-concentrate diet. We found that the exhaled air CH₄ concentrations measured by LMD were linearly correlated with the CH₄ emissions determined by infrared-absorption-based gas analyzer (r² = 0.55). …

An Ecophisiological Proposal To Manage Natural Grasslands: A Long Term Trial, F. L. F. De Quadros, D. Roberti, L. Marin, B. Kuinchtner, P. L. Nascimento

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Natural grasslands on Southern Brazil comprise the so called “Rio de La Plata Grasslands” in South America. They are an important fodder source for ruminant pastoral systems and contribute to regional ecosystem services. Strength of these grasslands is its floristic diversity that poses a dilemma to farmers: how to choose management protocols that could be applied for hundreds of species. We propose to use a functional ecophysiological approach based on groups of grasses, the most abundant on aerial biomass of this natural grasslands. We clustered the most frequent grasses in two groups based on its leaf traits (leaf dry matter …

Variation Of Pollen Viability In Brachiaria Species And Opportunity In Increased Filled Seed Percentage, Weenaporn Juntasin, Sarayut Thaikua, Rattikan Poungkaew, Pichet Chanpeng, Sompon Waipanya, Yasuhiro Kawamoto

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

On pseudogamy process, pollen fertility affects endosperm development in Brachiaria apomictic hybrids. Also, it was well-known that self-incompatibility could affect the fertilization in cross pollination species. Evaluation of pollen viability and percentage of filled seed, and the demonstration of pollen induction technique for increasing filled seed percentage in Brachiaria spp. are presented in this paper. In the first experiment, 8 cultivars/breeding lines of Brachiaria, including 2 open-pollinated cultivars, an apomictic cultivar and 5 hybrids, were planted in randomized completely block design, with 3 replications at northeast Thailand. Each experimental unit consisted of 20 plants, 6 central plants were evaluated. …

Improving Taxonomic Delimitation Of Fungal Species In The Age Of Genomics And Phenomics, Asjley Stengel, Kimberly M. Stanke, Amanda C. Quattrone, Joshua Herr

Department of Plant Pathology: Faculty Publications

Species concepts have long provided a source of debate among biologists. These lively debates have been important for reaching consensus on how to communicate across scientific disciplines and for advancing innovative strategies to study evolution, population biology, ecology, natural history, and disease epidemiology. Species concepts are also important for evaluating variability and diversity among communities, understanding biogeographical distributions, and identifying causal agents of disease across animal and plant hosts. While there have been many attempts to address the concept of species in the fungi, there are several concepts that have made taxonomic delimitation especially challenging. In this review we discuss …

Evaluation Of Herbage Intake Estimation Methods For Dairy Cattle Grazing On Semi-Extensive Pastures, S. Perdana-Decker, E. Velasco, J. Werner, U. Dickhoefer

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Available empirical and mechanistic models to estimate total dry matter intake (DMI) and pasture dry matter intake (PDMI) of grazing lactating dairy cows have mainly been developed under intensive grazing conditions. The objective was to evaluate the adequacy of such existent models for use under semi-extensive grazing conditions, characterised by semi-natural grassland and less intensive resource use. Feed intake of lactating cows was measured on three commercial organic dairy farms in South Germany during one or two 6-d-periods/farm in 2019. Each period, DMI was determined in 10 or 20 cows per farm from their daily faecal output measured using titanium …

Tracing The Path Of Technology Diffusion: The Case Of Nturumenti, Narok, Kenya, Paul N. Katiku, R. Kimitei, S. Amboga, G. A. Keya, B. Korir, J. Nginyi

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

An array of technologies; growing improved wheat varieties, bulking and collective marketing of wheat grains, sheep breed improvement, ram sharing, feedlot sheep fattening for market, strategic sheep deworming, pasture establishment and conservation practices; were introduced to members of a community based organization (CBO) in Nturumenti, anti-female genital mutilation and anti-poverty organization (AFAPO) in 2014. The CBO members, composed of youthful 19 men and 7 females, were intensively exposed and involved in the new skills both theoretically and practically in the farmers’ field school model. Even though the 8 farming technology options were suitable for the study environment, their adoption and …

The Use Of Sunn Hemp As Forage In Florida, João M. B. Vendramini, J. E. Garzon Alfonso, H. M. Da Silva, Maria L. Silveira, J. C. B. Dubeux Jr., M. Kaneko

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Sunn hemp (Crotalaria juncea L.) is a warm-season annual legume that has been widely used as cover crop; however, there is potential to use sunn hemp as forage in subtropical regions. The objective of this study was to evaluate management practices to improve the efficiency of using sunn hemp as a forage crop. The study was conducted in Ona, Florida, USA from 2016 to 2018 and tested the factorial arrangement of five sunn hemp genotypes (Crescent Sunn, Ubon, Blue Leaf, and AU Golden) and two harvest times (60 d after seeding or flowering) with four replicates. There was a …

The Optimum Seeding And Harvesting Dates Of Sorghum-Sudangrass Hybrid (Sorghum Bicolor L.) Via Optimum Moving Response Surface Methodology, M. Kim, J. Y. Kim, M. H. Jo, C. H. Kim, K. Sung

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

This study aimed to detect the optimum seeding and harvesting dates, and to verify the variation of dry matter yield (DMY) for sorghum-sudangrass hybrid (SSH) via optimum moving RSM proposed to optimize the RSM in metadata. For detecting the optimum point, a response surface methodology (RSM) has been known well in agricultural science. The SSH metadata (n = 856) consists of individual experiments that could be performed to check the optimum seeding and harvesting dates by classic RSM. However, the SSH metadata failed to produce an effective single equation which can be detected the optimum seeding and harvesting dates due …

The Importance Of Soil Seed Bank Dynamics As Potential Indicators Of Desertification Tipping Point, N. Hamunyela, W. C. Nesongano, K. Tielbörger

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Soil seed banks play a major role in the vegetation dynamics of drylands, where annual rainfall is unpredictable and plants depend on a persistent stage (seeds) to survive over the dry season. The purpose of the study is to understand the behaviour of the rangeland system in terms of soil seed bank dynamics before, during and after crossing the “so called” DTP and to determine whether different management systems plays a role in accelerating the desertification process. Through the use of the Space for Time Substitution Approach the study analysed spatial grazing gradients (gradients radiating from water points) to predict …

Promoting Rangeland Restoration And Climate Resilience Through Grazing Case Studies, T. D. Hudson, S. A. Hall, G. G. Yorgey, S. Neibergs, M. R. Reeves, S. Jensen

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Cow-calf beef operations are the primary users of the 8.75 million hectares of rangelands in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and will have to adapt to ongoing and future climate change. Management directed toward current rangeland stressors which may be amplified under a changing climate—including fire risk, invasive plants, and droughts—is likely to improve future resilience. And although climate change discussions have become highly politicized, our experience suggests that Pacific Northwest ranchers support "no-regrets” strategies that provide ecological and economic benefits under a variety of future conditions. Our goal is to foster adoption of these strategies by sharing individual success stories. …

The Effects Of Microbial Inoculation On Short-To-Long Fermentation And Aerobic Stability Of Grass-Legume Silage Ensiled In Big Bales, J. Jatkauskas, V. Vrotniakiene, K. L. Witt, G. Copani, I. Eisner

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Wilted (35.9 % DM and 2.6% WSC) moderately difficult to ensile grass-legume mixture (red clover, alfalfa and timothy 50:20:30) was ensiled in cylindrical big bales (1.2 m hight and 1.2 m diameter) with a weight about 700 kg. The crop was ensiled for 8, 32 and 120 days with or without a microbial inoculation (SiloSolve^® FC containing Lactococcus lactis DSM 11037/1k2081 and Lactobacillus buchneri DSM 22501/1k20738 applied at 1.5×10⁵ CFU g^-1 forage). Ten bales per treatment were prepared for each fermentation period. After each period of ensiling the big bales were opened, sampled, and tested for fermentation …

Spatial And Temporal Variation Of Stocking Rate In A Rotational Grazing System On A Namibian Cattle And Sheep Farm From 2006 To 2017, L. Ludwig, C. Huelsebusch

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The debate on appropriate stocking rates (SR) increasingly recognizes the importance of variable, targeted and adaptive stocking in response to a temporally variable and spatially heterogeneous resource distribution, particularly in challenging environments such as the Namibian savannah. In common extensive ranching systems, a farmer’s scope of action is often limited to flexibly adjusting the number and concentration of livestock to the available forage in space and time. SRs are commonly set according to carrying capacity recommendations which usually have a low spatio-temporal resolution. This may lead to punctual under- and overutilization. The Namibian Rangeland Management Strategy advocates adjusting SR in …

Silage Preparation And Fermentation Characteristics Of Pearl Millet Stover Treated With Microbial Additive In West Africa, Y. Cai, Z. Du, S. Yamasaki, D. Jethro, M. Nignan

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L.) stover is one of the main crop by-products in West Africa. To effectively use the crop by-product resources as roughage for ruminant to cover the feed shortage in the dry season, the millet stover silage was prepared using laboratory-scale fermentation system without (control) or with lactic acid bacteria inoculant (LP, Lactobacillus plantarum) and cellulase enzyme (AC, Acremonium) in Burkina Faso, and their fermentation characteristics and chemical composition were analyzed. The dry matter (DM) of fresh millet before ensiling was 44.3%, and their organic matter, crude protein (CP), ether extract, neutral detergent fiber …

Seasonal Patterns Of Herbage Accumulation Dynamics In Marandu Palisadegrass Subjected To Intensities Of Continuous Stocking Management, André F. Sbrissia, Daniel Schmitt, Paulo G. Duchini, Sila C. Da Silva

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

It is relatively well reported in the literature that pastures can have similar forage net accumulation when managed with contrasting structures. However, we hypothesized that the patterns of forage accumulation dynamics of pastures managed at different canopy heights is dependent on environmental conditions. The experimental treatments were four canopy heights (10, 20, 30, and 40 cm), allocated to experimental units according to a randomized complete block design with four replicates and evaluated throughout four contrasting environmental seasons (Summer, Autumn, Winter-Early Spring, and Late Spring). Under favourable growing conditions greater forage accumulation was observed in pastures maintained taller; on the contrary, …

Revisiting Nitrogen Fertilisation Rates Of Kikuyu And Kikuyu-Ryegrass Pastures, C. Viljoen, Janke Van Der Colf, Pieter A. Swanepoel

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Irrigated pastures are used for dairy production in South Africa. Minimum-tillage and nitrogen (N) fertilisation are important management practices for kikuyu (Pennisetum clandestinum) and ryegrass (Lolium spp.) pastures. Nitrogen fertiliser application rates as high as 500 kg N ha^-1 year^-1 have been reported. Conventional tillage as well as cutting and removal of herbage material (opposed to removal through grazing) are the basis on which these fertiliser guidelines were developed. The current management practices have substantially changed the soil organic carbon and N stoichiometry. The aim of this study was to determine an optimum rate of …

Review Of Urochloa Breeder’S Toolbox With The Theory Of Change And Stage Gate System Approach, E. Sweitzer, L. Hernandez, D. Florian, A. Notenbaert, S. Burkart, J. Arango, J. Cardoso, M. Peters, V. Castiblanco

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Livestock production in the global south is at crossroads as there is a demand to increase Animal Source Foods to address hunger and pressure to lighten the environmental footprint often associated with livestock production. To satisfy both needs, the use of technologies that improve animal performance, while reducing land use and net Greenhouse Gas emissions produced by animals is essential. One of such technologies are Urochloa forage grasses.

Urochloa forage grasses are well known for their rusticity and their ability to grow in soils of low fertility and high aluminum content. These characteristics allow Urochloa to grow in areas temporally …

Residual Feed Intake (Rfi) And Efficiency Of Feed Utilization (Efu) Of Total Mixed Ration (Tmr) Fed Frisian Cross Bred Cows – A Case Study, S. C. Somasiri, A. M. C. S. Karunarathna

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Residual Feed Intake (RFI) is the difference between an animal’s actual feed and expected feed intakes for a given period of time. Literature shows that highly efficient animals have a negative or lower RFI. Thus understanding about RFI is important to maintain an efficient herd. A feeding trial was undertaken at a commercial farm in Sri Lanka having Frisian cross bred cows. The cows were fed with a grass-based Total Mixed Ration (TMR) having maize (Zea mays), CO3 (Pennisetum perpureum X Pennisetum americarnum), beer pulp (wet brewer’s grain), dhal meal (Lens culinaris), mineral mixture …

The Astounding World Of Glycans From Giant Viruses, Anna Notaro, Chantal Abergel, Rosa Lanzetta, Todd L. Lowary, Antonio Molinaro, Michela Tonetti, James L. Van Etten, Cristina De Castro

Department of Plant Pathology: Faculty Publications

Viruses are a heterogeneous ensemble of entities, all sharing the need for a suitable host to replicate. They are extremely diverse, varying in morphology, size, nature, and complexity of their genomic content. Typically, viruses use host-encoded glycosyltransferases and glycosidases to add and remove sugar residues from their glycoproteins. Thus, the structure of the glycans on the viral proteins have, to date, typically been considered to mimick those of the host. However, the more recently discovered large and giant viruses differ from this paradigm. At least some of these viruses code for an (almost) autonomous glycosylation pathway. These viral genes include …

Release Of A New Forage Bermudagrass Cultivar From The Usda-Npgs Cynodon Collection, Esteban F. Rios, José C. B. Dubeux Jr., João M. B. Vendramini, M. Wallau, C. H. Lopes De Souza, A. J. Grossman, Y. Lopez, P. Munoz, W. Anderson, L. Baxter, M. S. Castillo, M. C. Saha, K. Quesenberry, A. Blount, P. Reith, K. Kenworthy

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Warm-season perennial grasses are the backbone of the pasture-based livestock industry in the southeastern USA. In Florida specifically, bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum Flugge) and bermudagrass (Cynodon spp.) support 1 million head of cattle and 15,000 beef cattle operations. Bermudagrass is the most widely planted forage species in the southeastern USA, planted in approximately 15 million ha and used for grazing, hay and silage. The genus Cynodon is native to southern Africa and germplasm collections have revealed a high degree of genetic variability within the genus. The United States Department of Agriculture National Plant Germplasm System (USDA-NPGS) maintains a collection …

Relationship Between Semi-Arid Rangelands Quality Parameters And Vegetation Indexes, P. Toro-Mujica, D. Enriquez-Hidalgo, S. Escobar

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

A large portion of the sheep production systems in the semi-arid zone of Central Chile base their feeding on the rangelands, adjusting both the production cycle and the use of supplementary feed to the natural supply of fodder. In this way, knowledge of the rangeland quantity and quality at the farm level emerges as an essential input for the decision-making of feed management. The objective of the study was to relate the herbage quality parameters of the semi-arid zone rangeland with Vegetation Indices (VI) and to determine which vegetation index report the best results. Vegetative indexes were obtained from aerial …