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Comparison Of Morphological Traits In Cowpea Pod Length, Seed Number Per Pod, Seed Weight, Seed Color And Seed Density In Usda Germplasm Accessions And Arkansas Breeding Lines, Sora Imamura

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

The objective of the study was to compare and correlate the Arkansas cowpea breeding lines to the USDA cowpea germplasm accessions on the following morphological traits: seed color, pod length, number of seeds per pod, 100 seed weight, and seed density. The seed density is defined as the weight of seed in gram per centimeter of pod length. Three hundred seventeen cowpea genotypes were used in this experiment. Out of the 317, 285 germplasm accessions were from the USDA GRIN and 32 lines were from the Arkansas breeding program.

T-test between Arkansas breeding lines and USDA germplasm accessions were done …

A Survey Of Earthworm Communities Across Areas Of Varying Land Management In Northwest Arkansas, Alyssa M. Ferri

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Earthworms are an integral component of the soil ecosystem, impacting factors including soil formation, maintenance of soil structure, and nutrient recycling. Earthworm abundances and distributions are related to abiotic soil properties and can influence the community structure. The goal of this study was to survey earthworm populations across areas of different land management histories and soil characteristics to determine if a relationship between earthworm density and land management characteristics was present. Earthworm and soil samples were collected at irregular temporal intervals from September 2017 to March 2018. In total, five sites were sampled, three at the Botanical Garden of the …

Evaluation Of Drought Tolerance In Arkansas Cowpea Lines At Seedling Stage, Qirui Cui

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Cowpea [Vigna unguiculate (L.) Walp.] is not only a healthy, nutritious and versatile leguminous crop, it also has a relatively high adaptation to drought. Researches have shown that cowpea lines have a high tolerance to drought, and many of them can survive over 40 days under very hot and dry conditions. The cowpea (Southern pea) breeding program at the University of Arkansas (UA) has been active for over 50 years and has produced more than 1,000 advanced breeding lines. And the purpose of this study is to evaluate the drought-tolerant ability in Arkansas cowpea lines and use the drought tolerant …

Evaluating Rice Straw As A Substitute For Barley Straw In Inhibiting Algal Growth In Farm Ponds, Jacob Maris

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Algal blooms disrupt aquatic ecosystems and are more common in lakes, ponds, and rivers during the summer months due to nutrient pollution. Livestock production can contribute increased quantities of nutrients to water bodies from runoff of manure. Commonly used mechanical and chemical control methods may have limited success because algae are small and propagate quickly. Barley (Hordeum vulgare) straw has been shown to inhibit the growth of algae as the straw decomposes aerobically in ponds. Therefore, barley represents a natural option for algal biomass control. However, the small amount of barley production in Arkansas limits the availability of …

Determination Of Optimum Harvest Date For Winter Malting Quality Barley In Northwest Arkansas, Paul Wolf

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Due to the strict quality requirements, only 10 percent of worldwide barley is used for malting, though malting quality barley comes with a price increase of up to 50 percent or higher. With the craft brewery industry growing in Northwest Arkansas there is a growing demand for locally sourced malt quality barley. However, data is lacking regarding production practices for barley in Arkansas. The optimum harvest date for malting quality barley is at physiological maturity. This is because many of the malting traits (such as germination energy) decline as harvest is delayed, which will make it difficult to meet the …