Digital Commons Network^™

Defoliation Effect Of Poa Ligularis Nees Ap Steudel On Aerial Biomass Production And Its Components In Northwestern Argentinian Patagonia, C. Gittins, G. F. Becker, C. A. Busso, G. L. Siffredi, L. G. Ghermandi

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

No abstract provided.

Degradation Of Pastures In Mongolia: Challenges And Perspective, D. Dorligsuren, D. Avaadorj, M. Olonbayar, Ts. Enkh‐Amgalan

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

No abstract provided.

Cultivating The Surface Soil To Renovate A Grama Rhodes (Chloris Gayana K. Cv. Callide) Pasture In Northwest Argentine (Noa). 3. Effect Of Interval Of Implements Applied, R. N. Berti

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

No abstract provided.

Bodyweight Gain Of Grazing Sheep Responses To Stocking Rate In Stipa Breviflora Steppe, Zhongwu Wang, Guodong Han, Mengli Zhao

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

No abstract provided.

Supplementation Levels For Crossbred Steers Kept In Pastures Grazing Brachiaria Brizantha, I. F. Andrade, M. M. Leão, A. A. F. Baião, E. A. A. M. Baião

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

No abstract provided.

Effect Of The Pasture On Milk Production From Cinisara Cows Over The Seasons, M. Alabiso, C. Giosuè, M. L. Alicata, V. Ilardi, D. Giambalvo, G. Maniaci

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

No abstract provided.

Identifying And Solving Mineral Deficiencies In Sheep And Goats In Inner Mongolia, Adrian Williams, Dunyuan Hao

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

No abstract provided.

An Investigation On Diet Selection By Sheep And Goats In Steppe Regions Of Yazd Province, Iran, Anahita Rashtian, Mansour Mesdaghi, Masoume Amirkhani

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

No abstract provided.

Widespread Mortality Of Trembling Aspen (Populus Tremuloides) Throughout Interior Alaskan Boreal Forests Resulting From A Novel Canker Disease, Roger W. Ruess, Loretta M. Winton, Gerard C. Adams

Department of Plant Pathology: Faculty Publications

Over the past several decades, growth declines and mortality of trembling aspen throughout western Canada and the United States have been linked to drought, often interacting with outbreaks of insects and fungal pathogens, resulting in a “sudden aspen decline” throughout much of aspen’s range. In 2015, we noticed an aggressive fungal canker causing widespread mortality of aspen throughout interior Alaska and initiated a study to quantify potential drivers for the incidence, virulence, and distribution of the disease. Stand-level infection rates among 88 study sites distributed across 6 Alaska ecoregions ranged from <1 to 69%, with the proportion of trees with canker that were dead averaging 70% across all sites. The disease is most prevalent north of the Alaska Range within the Tanana Kuskokwim ecoregion. Modeling canker probability as a function of ecoregion, stand structure, landscape position, and climate revealed that smaller-diameter trees in older stands with greater aspen basal area have the highest canker incidence and mortality, while younger trees in younger stands appear virtually immune to the disease. Sites with higher summer vapor pressure deficits had significantly higher levels of canker infection and mortality. We believe the combined effects of this novel fungal canker pathogen, drought, and the persistent aspen leaf miner outbreak are triggering feedbacks between carbon starvation and hydraulic failure that are ultimately driving widespread mortality. Warmer early-season temperatures and prolonged late summer drought are leading to larger and more severe wildfires throughout interior Alaska that are favoring a shift from black spruce to forests dominated by Alaska paper birch and aspen. Widespread aspen mortality fostered by this rapidly spreading pathogen has significant implications for successional dynamics, ecosystem function, and feedbacks to disturbance regimes, particularly on sites too dry for Alaska paper birch.

Digitization Of Ecological History In The Driftless Area Of Minnesota, St. Mary's University Of Minnesota-Geospatial Services, Winona State University-Library Special Collections

Ecological History StoryMaps

The Winona County Historical Society (WCHS) and Winona State University (WSU) collaborated on applying for a Heritage Partnership grant to produce shared resources with the goal to educate the Winona community about the local ecological history of the area. The grant provided the opportunity to hire St. Mary's University of Minnesota - GeoSpatial Services to reconstruct a map fo the vegetative communities in the city of Winona based on a 1855 land survey and other available data. An 1862 transcription of the 1855 of the land survey was found in the WCHS Laird Norton Archive, which was the starting point …

The Effects Of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals On Plants, Christian Mathew Pridemore

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are a diverse group of chemicals which can have a detrimental effect on human health, affecting any physiological body system sensitive to hormonal changes. Human exposure to EDCs is inevitable due to their prevalence in modern living; EDCs are integral compounds found in everyday items with which humans interact and ingest. These, along with other indirect avenues leading to EDC exposure, pose a threat to both human health and to the health of wildlife and agricultural environments. Studies on the effects of EDCs on plants can be substantially informative and necessary for progress towards solving the …

Plastid Phylogenomics Of The Gynoxoid Group (Senecioneae, Asteraceae) Highlights The Importance Of Motif-Based Sequence Alignment Amid Low Genetic Distances, Belen Escobari, Thomas Borsch, Taylor Quedensley, Michael Gruenstaeudl

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Premise The genus Gynoxys and relatives form a species-rich lineage of Andean shrubs and trees with low genetic distances within the sunflower subtribe Tussilaginineae. Previous molecular phylogenetic investigations of the Tussilaginineae have included few, if any, representatives of this Gynoxoid group or reconstructed ambiguous patterns of relationships for it. Methods We sequenced complete plastid genomes of 21 species of the Gynoxoid group and related Tussilaginineae and conducted detailed comparisons of the phylogenetic relationships supported by the gene, intron, and intergenic spacer partitions of these genomes. We also evaluated the impact of manual, motif-based adjustments of automatic DNA sequence alignments on …

Airpg: Automatically Accessing The Inverted Repeats Of Archived Plastid Genomes, Tilman Mehl, Michael Gruenstaeudl

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

In most flowering plants, the plastid genome exhibits a quadripartite genome structure, comprising a large and a small single copy as well as two inverted repeat regions. Thousands of plastid genomes have been sequenced and submitted to public sequence repositories in recent years. The quality of sequence annotations in many of these submissions is known to be problematic, especially regarding annotations that specify the length and location of the inverted repeats: such annotations are either missing or portray the length or location of the repeats incorrectly. However, many biological investigations employ publicly available plastid genomes at face value and implicitly …

Agronomic Response Of Camelina To Nitrogen And Seeding Rate On The Northern Great Plains, Thandiwe Nleya, Dwarika Bhattarai, Phillip Alberti

Agronomy, Horticulture and Plant Science Faculty Publications

Camelina (Camelina sativa L. Crantz,) a new oilseed crop in the Brassicaceae family has favorable agronomic traits and multiple food and industrial uses. Appropriate production practices for optimal camelina yield in temperate climates of North America are lacking. This study investigated the response of camelina seed yield and quality, and agronomic traits to applied N (5 levels, 0, 28, 56, 84, 140 kg ha−1) and four seeding rates (4.5, 9, 13, 17.5 kg ha−1). Separate experiments were conducted at four environments (site-years) for N and three environments for seeding rate in South Dakota. In three of the four environments, the …

Consequences Of Stress-Induced Trait Plasticity In Cultivated Helianthus, Gillian Gomer

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The Leaf Economics Spectrum (LES) describes the continuous range of leaf ecophysiological strategies that plants across the globe utilize to achieve a net-positive return on their resource investment. This spectrum is measured by traits such as leaf mass per area, leaf nitrogen, and leaf lifespan. Unsuitable leaf trait combinations are selected against in nature due to a net-loss on the return of initial resource investment, while some potentially extremely effective trait combinations may not be possible due to genetic constraints. Existing genetic variation in LES traits, however, suggests the spectrum may be less rigid than previously expected. To test this, …

Intellectual Property Rights In The Seed Industry: Barriers To Sustainable Agriculture, Elena A. Filatova

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dynamics of the dominant industrial agriculture system restrict the seed industry’s innovative landscape, leading to significant negative consequences including an exacerbation of environmental risks which threaten global food security. This thesis explores how exclusionary intellectual property rights (IPRs) in the context of the seed industry constrict innovation, evolutionary pathways, and opportunities for the implementation of sustainable agriculture methods. To overcome these barriers, the application of an open source framework to seed innovation, specifically through the platform of the Open Source Seed Initiative, is evaluated as a tool for enhancing innovative capacities in seed development while broadening the accessibility and …

The Ecological Resilience Of A Tropical Montane Pine Forest To Droughts, Fire, And Hurricane Disturbance, Daniel Erland Brugger Swann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Owing to the geographic isolation and unique climatic conditions which occur in tropical montane forests (TMFs), these systems are highly sensitive to changes in both climate and disturbance. Therefore, as ongoing climate change alters disturbance regimes – potentially facilitating multiple disturbance interactions much greater than that of isolated disturbances – TMFs may be shifted to alternate stable states. However, study of TMF resilience is essentially unknown given the lack of long-term studies in these systems. We address the resiliency of the tropical montane pine forests of the Cordillera Central, Dominican Republic using long-term climate records, remeasured vegetation data, and reconstructed …

Understanding Patterns And Functional Impacts Of An Invasive Tree And Its Biological Control In A Riparian System, Annie L. Henry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Invasive species have become an inextricable part of the landscape, particularly in riparian plant communities, and removal is often a key component of restoration programs. Biological control (biocontrol) is a method of removal that is often both efficient and effective. However, the impact of biocontrol on target species and indirect effects from invasive species removal can be hard to predict. While monitoring the impact of invasive species removal usually involves some species-based assessment such as changes in diversity, historically dominant species or native species, these strategies do not typically provide insight into the mechanisms underlying plant community response to removal. …

Gypsum-Exclusive Plants Accumulate More Leaf S Than Non-Exclusive Species Both In And Off Gypsum, Andreu Cera, Gabriel Montserrat-Martí, Juan Pedro Ferrio, Rebecca E. Drenovsky, Sara Palacio

2021 Faculty Bibliography

Gypsum-exclusive species (gypsophiles), are restricted to gypseous soils in natural environments. However, it is unclear why gypsophiles display greater affinity to gyspeous soils than other soils. These plants are edaphic endemics, growing in alkaline soils with high Ca and S. Gypsophiles tend to show higher foliar Ca and S, lower K and, sometimes, higher Mg than non-exclusive gypsum species, named gypsovags. Our aim was to test if the unique leaf elemental signature of gypsophiles could be the result of special nutritional requirements linked to their specificity to gypseous soils. These nutritional requirements could hamper the completion of their life cycle …

72-H Diurnal Rna-Seq Analysis Of Fully Expanded Third Leaves From Maize, Sorghum, And Foxtail Millet At 3-H Resolution, Xianjun Lai, Claire Bendix, Yan Zhang, James Schnable, Frank G. Harmon

Center for Plant Science Innovation: Faculty Publications

Objectives: The purpose of this data set is to capture the complete diurnal (i.e., daily) transcriptome of fully expanded third leaves from the C4 panacoid grasses sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), maize (Zea mays), and foxtail millet (Setaria italica) with RNA-seq transcriptome profiling. These data are the cornerstone of a larger project that examined the conservation and divergence of gene expression networks within these crop plants. This data set focuses on tem- poral changes in gene expression to identify the network architecture responsible for daily regulation of plant growth and metabolic activities. The power of this data set is fine temporal resolution …

Plasma Membrane Fluidity: An Environment Thermal Detector In Plants, Dora L. Cano-Ramirez, Laura Carmona-Salazar, Francisco Morales-Cedillo, Jorge Ramírez-Salcedo, Edgar B. Cahoon, Marina Gavilanes-Ruíz

Center for Plant Science Innovation: Faculty Publications

The lipid matrix in cell membranes is a dynamic, bidimensional array of amphipathic molecules exhibiting mesomorphism, which contributes to the membrane fluidity changes in response to temperature fluctuation. As sessile organisms, plants must rapidly and accurately respond to environmental thermal variations. However, mechanisms underlying temperature perception in plants are poorly understood. We studied the thermal plasticity of membrane fluidity using three fluorescent probes across a temperature range of -5 to 41 °C in isolated microsomal fraction (MF), vacuolar membrane (VM), and plasma membrane (PM) vesicles from Arabidopsis plants. Results showed that PM were highly fluid and exhibited more phase transitions …

Complete Mitogenomes Of Two Aragoa Species And Phylogeny Of Plantagineae (Plantaginaceae, Lamiales) Using Mitochondrial Genes And The Nuclear Ribosomal Rna Repeat, Jeffrey P. Mower, Lilly Hanley, Kirsten Wolff, Natalia Pabón-Mora, Favio González

Center for Plant Science Innovation: Faculty Publications

Aragoa, comprising 19 high-altitude North Andean species, is one of three genera in the Plantagineae (Plantaginaceae, Lamiales), along with Littorella and Plantago. Based primarily on plastid data and nuclear ITS, Aragoa is sister to a clade of Littorella + Plantago, but Plantagineae relationships have yet to be assessed using multigene datasets from the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes. Here, complete mitogenomes were assembled for two species of Aragoa (A. abietina and A. cleefii). The mitogenomes of both species have a typical suite of genes for 34 proteins, 17 tRNAs, and three rRNAs. The A. abietina mitogenome …

Inmut-Finder: A Software Tool For Insertion Identification In Mutagenesis Using Nanopore Long Reads, Rui Song, Ziyao Wang, Hui Wang, Han Zhang, Xuemeng Wang, Hanh Nguyen, David Holding, Bin Yu, Tom Clemente, Shangang Jia, Chi Zhang

Center for Plant Science Innovation: Faculty Publications

Background: Biological mutagens (such as transposon) with sequences inserted, play a crucial role to link observed phenotype and genotype in reverse genetic studies. For this reason, accurate and efficient software tools for identifying insertion sites based on the analysis of sequencing reads are desired. Results: We developed a bioinformatics tool, a Finder, to identify genome-wide Insertions in Mutagenesis (named as “InMut-Finder”), based on target sequences and flanking sequences from long reads, such as Oxford Nanopore Sequencing. InMut-Finder succeeded in identify > 100 insertion sites in Medicago truncatula and soybean mutants based on sequencing reads of whole-genome DNA or enriched …

3d Reconstruction Identifies Loci Linked To Variation In Angle Of Individual Sorghum Leaves, Michael C. Tross, Mathieu Gaillard, Mackenzie Zwiener, Chenyong Miao, Ryleigh J. Grove, Bosheng Li, Bedrich Benes, James C. Schnable

Center for Plant Science Innovation: Faculty Publications

Selection for yield at high planting density has reshaped the leaf canopy of maize, improving photosynthetic productivity in high density settings. Further optimization of canopy architecture may be possible. However, measuring leaf angles, the widely studied component trait of leaf canopy architecture, by hand is a labor and time intensive process. Here, we use multiple, calibrated, 2D images to reconstruct the 3D geometry of individual sorghum plants using a voxel carving based algorithm. Automatic skeletonization and segmentation of these 3D geometries enable quan- tification of the angle of each leaf for each plant. The resulting measurements are both heritable and …

Somatic Variants For Seed And Fruit Set In Grapevine, Laura Costantini, Paula Moreno-Sanz, Chinedu Charles Nwafor, Silvia Lorenzi, Annarita Marrano, Fabiana Cristofolini, Elena Gottardini, Stefano Raimondi, Paola Ruffa, Ivana Gribaudo, Anna Schneider, Maria Stella Grando

Center for Plant Science Innovation: Faculty Publications

Background: Grapevine reproductive development has direct implications on yield. It also impacts on berry and wine quality by affecting traits like seedlessness, berry and bunch size, cluster compactness and berry skin to pulp ratio. Seasonal fluctuations in yield, fruit composition and wine attributes, which are largely driven by climatic factors, are major challenges for worldwide table grape and wine industry. Accordingly, a better understanding of reproductive processes such as gamete development, fertilization, seed and fruit set is of paramount relevance for managing yield and quality. With the aim of providing new insights into this field, we searched for clones with …

Bryophyte Ecology, Janice M. Glime

Open Access Books

Bryophyte Ecology is an ebook comprised of 5 volumes written by Janice Glime, Professor Emerita of Biological Sciences at Michigan Technological University. Chapter coauthors include Irene Bisang, S. Robbert Gradstein, J. Lissner, W. J. Boelema, and D. H. Wagner.

This book is written in the hope that it is useful to a broad audience, from children to seasoned professionals. Its citations help the scientist find further information. The images help the beginner to understand. Its aim is to broaden the group of people who appreciate and understand the roles that bryophytes play in our world.

For videos that accompany the …

Grand Rapids Flora Then And Now: Emma Cole Project 2021, Haley Weesies, Zachary Hartwig, Lucas Walker, Natalie Vredevoogd, Garrett Crow, Dave Warners

Summer Research

In 1901, local botanist and teacher Emma Cole published Grand Rapids Flora: A Catalogue of the Flowering Plants and Ferns Growing Without Cultivation in the Grand Rapids Area. Despite immense changes in land use and development of Grand Rapids in the past 120 years, her work remains the most comprehensive floristic inventory of the area to date. • Develop floristic inventories of field sites. o Periodically visit each site May-August, documenting all plant species observed. o Make herbarium voucher specimens of all species in flower or in fruit to be pressed and dried. This is done in order to document …

Impact Of Maize Hybrid Selection On Water Productivity Under Deficit Irrigation In Semiarid Western Nebraska, Strahinja Stepanovic, Daran Rudnick, Greg R. Kruger

West Central Research and Extension Center, North Platte

The future economic and agricultural sustainability of semiarid western Nebraska will largely depend on more efficient utilization of the declining groundwater resources. The scope of this research was to evaluate the maize hybrid yield, water productivity (WP; i.e. grain yield produced per unit of water consumed), and irrigation water productivity (IWP; i.e. increase in grain yield per unit of irrigation water applied) across a range of semiarid climatic conditions (i.e. drought, normal, and wet) and irrigation treatments. Total of 13 maize hybrids were evaluated under full irrigation (FI), deficit irrigation (DI, receiving ~50% less irrigation water than FI), and dryland …

Identification Of The Biological Function Of Rab-Ggt Β-Subunits By Reverse Techniques, Briana L. Seibert, Hyun Jin Jung, Mark P. Running

Undergraduate Arts and Research Showcase

Protein prenylation is a post-translational process where lipids are added to carboxyl end groups, which allows proteins to function properly in the eukaryotic cell. The job of prenylation is to help in targeting certain proteins to specific membrane along with promoting protein-protein interactions. We use reverse genetics techniques to understand the function of prenylation in plant development by examining the phenotypic changes caused by specific gene disruption. One of the excellent model organisms Physcomitrella patens (moss) is used due to its simple structure, limited tissue and cells, sequenced genome, and its high gene targeting efficiency.

Rab geranylgeranyl transferase-II (Rab-GGT) is …

Use Of Foliar Chemical Treatments To Induce Disease Resistance In Rhododendrons Inoculated With Phytophthora Ramorum, Craig Ramsey, Paul C. Freebury, Debra H. Newman, Wolfgang Schweigkofler, Leland J. Cseke, Steven E. Newman

Natural Sciences and Mathematics | Faculty Scholarship

A field study was conducted at the National Ornamental Research Site at Dominican University California (NORS-DUC). The study goal was to evaluate three chemical inducers applied as foliar treatments for controlling Phytophthora ramorum, on Rhododendron x ‘Cunningham’s White’ nursery plants. The inducers were chlorine dioxide (ElectroBiocide), hydrogen peroxide (OxiDate 2.0), and acibenzolar-s methyl (Actigard). Water samples from the electrostatic sprayer were measured for three physicochemical water properties. Visual assessment of plant foliage, based on the Horsfall- Barratt scale, was conducted at three and five months after chemical treatments. Foliar fluorescence (Fv/Fm) was measured over three dates. The success of P. …