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Full-Text Articles in Plant Sciences

Animal Husbandry In The 21st Century: Application Of Ecological Theory And Precision Technology To Inform Understanding Of Modern Grazing Systems, Ira Lloyd Parsons Dec 2022

Animal Husbandry In The 21st Century: Application Of Ecological Theory And Precision Technology To Inform Understanding Of Modern Grazing Systems, Ira Lloyd Parsons

Theses and Dissertations

Ruminant animals comprise the greatest proportion of herbivores around the world, provide essential ecosystem services and human consumable protein by consuming grass and human inedible dietary fiber. Herbivory pressure alters plant communities and species diversity, effectively making grazing animals ecosystem engineers in dynamic ecosystems. Development of advanced computer processing power coupled with biometric and ecosystem sensors may be employed in the internet of things framework to create an integrated information system designed to inform understanding of grazing system function and animal energy balance. Towards this end, I utilized Bos indicus / Bos taurus crossbred steers (n = 20) across two …


Manipulating The Root Mycobiome To Improve Plant Performance And Reduce Pathogen Pressure In Corn (Zea Mays), Noor F. Saeed Cheema Jun 2022

Manipulating The Root Mycobiome To Improve Plant Performance And Reduce Pathogen Pressure In Corn (Zea Mays), Noor F. Saeed Cheema

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Crop yield often varies within a field of a single genetically uniform crop plant, with the causes presumed to be a mix of both biotic and abiotic factors. Manipulating crop root mycobiomes could potentially increase yield by reducing pathogen impacts and improving access to soil water and nutrients. This study aimed to identify different fungal inoculation treatments that could increase the growth of corn seedlings sown in low productivity soils to that in high productivity soils and shift the root mycobiome composition. Fungal inoculation treatments did not have significantly different root mycobiome composition than seedlings grown in low yield control …


Winter Cover Crop Impacts On Weed Dynamics In Eastern And Central Nebraska, Elizabeth Ann Oys Apr 2022

Winter Cover Crop Impacts On Weed Dynamics In Eastern And Central Nebraska, Elizabeth Ann Oys

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

Reducing tillage in cropping systems causes weed management to be dependent on chemical and cultural methods for weed control. Over time, herbicide-resistant weeds have developed due to the continuous selection pressures from herbicides, particularly in the Midwest Corn Belt. Integrated weed management strategies, such as cover crops, can be used to mitigate some of these issues. Cover crops are primarily known for their soil health benefits, but there is evidence that cover crops can suppress weeds. However, less research has been done at the field-scale level to address cover crop impacts on the weed seedbank and aboveground weeds during the …


Songbird-Mediated Insect Pest Control In Low Intensity New England Agriculture, Samuel J. Mayne Mar 2022

Songbird-Mediated Insect Pest Control In Low Intensity New England Agriculture, Samuel J. Mayne

Masters Theses

Global agricultural intensification has caused large-scale wildlife declines, but agricultural lands that maintain natural habitats can support healthy wildlife populations and receive significant ecosystem services from these natural communities. However, how on-farm biodiversity results in beneficial ecosystem services is highly variable and is reported to differ among taxa and guilds. One group that has attracted attention for their potential beneficial role in reducing pest abundance are birds. Understanding the role of bird communities and individual species in pest control could be important for managing farms under a low intensity agroecological framework. In New England, farmers are increasingly applying low intensity …


Regenerating Agroecosystems By Overcoming Human Exceptionalism In Designing For Increased Equity Of Benefits From Ecoservices, Ali Loker, Charles A. Francis Jan 2022

Regenerating Agroecosystems By Overcoming Human Exceptionalism In Designing For Increased Equity Of Benefits From Ecoservices, Ali Loker, Charles A. Francis

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Our commentary explores three critical issues related to ecosystem services. First is how ecoservices are currently designed and implemented primarily for human benefit without concern for how these impact other species. We conclude that awareness of this imbalance is the first step toward meaningful change. Second we observe that human exceptionalism guides most decisions, and ask whether we can overcome this mind-set to embrace ecoregeneration and design of resilient and mutually beneficial agroecosystems. Our attitude toward the challenge and moving toward greater humility about human roles that guide management decisions in the ecosystem is a requisite for change. Third we …


Gaia Contributions To Agroecology By James Lovelock (1919-2022), Steve Gliessman, Charles A. Francis Jan 2022

Gaia Contributions To Agroecology By James Lovelock (1919-2022), Steve Gliessman, Charles A. Francis

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

In writing about the history of agroecology we too often ignore the valuable contributions of British scientist James Lovelock who recently died on his 103rd birthday. A prolific inventor and influential theorist, Lovelock is best known for the Gaia hypothesis first proposed during his innovative work in the 1960s with the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He suggested that ‘the biosphere has a regulatory effect on the Earth’s environment that acts to sustain life’ as written in Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (Lovelock 1979). Lovelock further proposed that humans have strongly impacted the planet’s capacity …