Plant Sciences Commons^™

Phylogeny, Adaptive Radiation, And Historical Biogeography In Bromeliaceae: Insights From An Eight-Locus Plastid Phylogeny, Thomas J. Givnish, Michael H. J. Barfuss, Benjamin Van Ee, Ricarda Riina, Katharina Schulte, Ralf Horres, Philip A. Gonsiska, Rachel S. Jabaily, Darren M. Crayn, J. Andrew Smith

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Premise: Bromeliaceae form a large, ecologically diverse family of angiosperms native to the New World. We use a bromeliad phylogeny based on eight plastid regions to analyze relationships within the family, test a new, eight-subfamily classification, infer the chronology of bromeliad evolution and invasion of different regions, and provide the basis for future analyses of trait evolution and rates of diversification.

Methods: We employed maximum-parsimony, maximum-likelihood, and Bayesian approaches to analyze 9341 aligned bases for four outgroups and 90 bromeliad species representing 46 of 58 described genera. We calibrate the resulting phylogeny against time using penalized likelihood applied …

The Fruiting And Berry-Chemistry Responses Of Zinfandel Grapes To Cluster Thinning, Cameron John Mauritson

Master's Theses

A field experiment was conducted in the Rockpile appellation of Sonoma County during 2007 and 2008. The experimental design was a randomized complete block with five replicates. Zinfandel vines were subjected to three levels of cluster thinning during the lag phase of berry growth: vines were thinned to 2 clusters per shoot with shoulders retained if present (2CS), 1 cluster per shoot with shoulders retained if present (1CS), or 2 clusters per shoot with shoulders removed if present (2CNS).

Cluster thinning Zinfandel grapevines during lag phase led to reductions in yield and crop load and increased °Brix of the fruit. …

Evaluación De Tres Tipos De Fertilizantes Sobre La Producción De Biomasa Y Calidad Nutricional Del Pasto Maralfalfa (Pennisetum Sp) Cosechado A Cuatro Estadios De Crecimiento Diferentes, Mauricio Andres Buelvas Ramirez

Zootecnia

En estos días se viene proclamando en nuestro país sistemas de ganadería en semi confinamiento y confinamiento completo, al mismo tiempo estos sistemas basan gran parte de las dietas ofrecidas a los animales en pastos de corte como lo es el maralfalfa (Pennisetum sp). Hasta el momento se ha especulado mucho sobre este pasto y no hay estudios suficientes que orienten a los productores para que utilicen estos pastos con la mejor calidad y la mayor cantidad posible de biomasa. Por esta razón, se desarrolló esta investigación en un lote de pasto de corte maralfalfa ya establecido ubicado en la …

Efecto De La Fertilización Y Diámetro Del Material Vegetativo Sobre El Crecimiento En Vivero De Sambucus Nigra Y Morus Alba, Con Destino A Sistemas Silvopastoriles, Claudia Jimena Cruz Murillo, Diana Carolina Moreno Martinez

Zootecnia

La investigación se realizó en la Universidad de la Sallé, donde se estableció un vivero con un área total de 165 mts2 de dos especies forrajeras con fines silvopastoriles Sauco (Sambucus nigra) y Morera (Morus alba), se emplearon 2400 estacas en total divididas en 1200 estacas por especie, aplicando un diseño estadístico completamente al azar con un arreglo factorial de 2x3, dos especies (Sambucus nigra y Morus alba) y tres tratamientos (T1 Biofertilizante, T2 Magnesil y T3 Control) y se efectuaron pruebas estadísticas utilizando comparación múltiple de Duncan, análisis estadístico descriptivo, de correlación y regresión lineal en el programa SAS …

Demographics And Habitat Selection For The Western Meadowlark (Sturnella Neglecta) In The Nebraska Sandhills, Matthew D. Giovanni

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

The prairie ecosystems of the Great Plains region in North America have largely been replaced and fragmented with industrial agriculture and invasive herbaceous and woody plant species. The concurrent and large-scale suppression of wildfire and elimination of grazing by native ungulates may have further decreased the availability and quality of habitat for wildlife. Indeed, 2004 estimates indicate only 30% of historic grasslands in the Great Plains still exist, while the trends of decreased land area enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program and increased land area in commercial agriculture indicate continued loss of habitat. This decrease in habitat availability continues to …

Skunk Cabbage Flowers: The Heat Is On, W. John Hayden

Biology Faculty Publications

It is a remarkable sight, as striking as it is unexpected: January skunk cabbages emerging from the frozen mires they call home, melting their way through snow and ice. It seems so improbable because in everyday experience plants exist at equilibrium with ambient temperatures. Leave an apple on the front seat of your car in summer, it gets hot; examine your tomato plants on that first frosty morning in autumn, and they are permeated with ice crystals. People, mammals and birds are inherently warm, and pretty much nothing else is. Except, of course, for the exceptions, of which skunk cabbage …

2009 Report : A Multi-Refuge Program To Evaluate The Effect Of Ungulate Browsing On Habitat, Richard B. Keigley, Jeffrey Warren, Wayne J. King

Aspen Bibliography

No abstract provided.

An Aspen Success Story : 2009 Aspen Monitoring Report, James L. Robertson

Aspen Bibliography

No abstract provided.

2009 Wildflower Of The Year: Skunk Cabbage, Symplocarpus Foetidus, W. John Hayden

Biology Faculty Publications

Skunk cabbage is a coarse herbaceous plant. The stem consists of a stout rhizome oriented vertically in the soil. Leaves and flowers arise from the tip of the rhizome which is often not visible, resulting in the appearance of leaves and flowers arising directly from the swampy mires where these plants grow. Flowers appear during the winter, long before the leaves. The flowers are minute, clustered into a ball-like group (spadix) almost entirely enclosed by a fleshy, hood-like, spathe. The spathe ranges from 8 to 15 cm in height, is more or less pear-shaped, widest near the bottom, and tapers …

Life In The Slow Lane: Palmetto Seedlings Exhibit Remarkable Survival But Slow Growth In Florida's Nutrient-Poor Uplands, W. G. Abrahamson, C. R. Abrahamson

Warren G. Abrahamson, II

The palmettos Serenoa repens and Sabal etonia are crucial foundation species in many peninsular Florida vegetative associations. We monitored the survival and growth of individual palmetto seedlings using two cohorts found in different vegetative associations. Seedling cohorts containing both S. repens and S. etonia were individually tagged in 1989 and have been monitored until 2008, a period of 19 years. One cohort (N = 100 seedlings) occurs in a xeric, “inopina-phase” scrubby flatwoods and a second cohort (N =78 seedlings) lives in a well-drained, “wiregrass-phase” flatwoods. The soils at both sites are very nutrient-poor Entisols that show rapid permeability, low …

Fat Bloom Development And Structure-Appearance Relationships During Storage Of Under-Tempered Dark Chocolates, Dr. Emmanuel Ohene Afoakwa, Alistair Paterson, Mark Fowler, Joselio Vieira

Professor Emmanuel Ohene Afoakwa

Fat bloom development and associated changes in microstructure, texture, appearance and melting properties were studied. Dark chocolates varying in particle size (PS) (D90 of 18, 25, 35 and 50 µm) were processed and pre-crystallised to under-temper regime. Bloom was induced by storing products under ambient conditions (18 ± 2 °C, RH 50%) and changes in texture, surface whiteness, gloss and melting properties evaluated on cooling and after every 24 h in storage until reaching asymptotic values. Microstructure of products were characterised during blooming using stereoscopic binocular microscopy. Measurements on texture and surface whiteness showed initial rapid increases with consequential reductions …

Comparison Of Rheological Models For Determining Dark Chocolate Viscosity, Emmanuel Ohene Afoakwa, Alistair Paterson, Mark Fowler, Joselio Vieira

Professor Emmanuel Ohene Afoakwa

Parameters in chocolate rheology, namely shear viscosity and yield stress, are important in manufacture and directly influenced by product particle size distribution (PSD) and composition. The Casson model was the standard confectionery industry strategy to quantify rheological properties of molten chocolate until in 2000, the International Confectionery Association recommended the use of interpolation data to describe viscosity. The two strategies are compared and correlated in defining rheological properties of molten dark chocolates prepared using different PSD, fat and lecithin content. Rheological parameters were determined using a shear rate-controlled rheometer and data examined using correlation, regression and principal component analyses to …

A Photovoice Participatory Evaluation Of A School Gardening Program Through The Eyes Of Fifth Graders, Catherine Sands, Krista Harper, Lee Ellen Reed, Maggie Shar

Catherine Sands

In the springtime, fifth grade students at the Williamsburg Elementary School in rural Western Massachusetts ask to snack on sorrel and chives from the school garden, between planting potatoes and building a shade structure for their outdoor classroom. They are members of the first cohort of the curriculum-integrated program initiated by Fertile Ground, a grassroots organization in western Massachusetts. The children’s delight in the fresh greens they have grown marks a national phenomenon: the farm-to-school movement. With limited resources, parents, teachers, students, administrators, and community activists are developing inroads to better school food and food education, by constructing school teaching …