Plant Sciences Commons^™

Patterns And Sources Of Variation In Heterospecific Pollen Deposition In Flowers Of The Native Blue Cardinal Flower (Lobelia Siphilitica), Allie Drinnon

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Plants species interactions via pollinators are a model system to understand the mechanisms that generate plant diversity in nature. However, most studies have focused on plant-plant interactions via pollinator attraction while ignoring the role of plant-plant interactions via pollen transfer. Heterospecific pollen transfer (henceforth HP) can be common and have negative fitness effects. Negative HP fitness effects may prompt the evolution of adaptive strategies to minimize them. However, the extent of spatial variation in HP load size within and among populations, a tenet for natural selection, remains unexplored. Such knowledge would hence constitute a first step in advancing our understanding ...

Management Of Garlic Mustard (Alliaria Petiolata), Sahara Mustard (Brassica Tournefortii), And Elongated Mustard (Brassica Elongata) In Utah, Natalie Layne Fronk

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The invasive mustard species Sahara mustard (Brassica tournefortii), garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) and elongated mustard (Brassica elongata) negatively impact a variety of ecological systems across the state of Utah. The distribution of these species in Utah is relatively limited at the current time. If prompt action is taken, it may be possible to contain and manage these species before irreparable ecological and agricultural damage occurs. For this reason, all three mustards are listed by the State of Utah as weeds of high priority for management.

This project tested multiple strategies to determine effective species-specific methods for invasive mustard management. Field ...

Dairy Breed, Grass-Birdsfoot Trefoil Mixture, And Pasture Nutrition Effects On Intake, Feed Efficiency, And Grazing Adaptation, Michael Greenland

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Dairy cattle have lower dry matter intake (DMI) on pastures thus leading to less weight gain and milk production than feedlot cows. This study was conducted to determine whether different dairy breeds are better adapted to lower or higher quality pastures as measured in DMI and feed efficiency. The eight treatments consisted of Jersey, Holstein, Holstein-Jersey crossbreds, and 3-breed crossbreds (Montbéliarde-Swedish Red-Holstein) heifers on grass monocultures and grass-BFT mixtures. We observed greater DMI on grass-BFT mixtures. Among breeds, Holstein had the greatest DMI, then the two crossbreds, and Jersey had the least. Feed efficiency was most favorable for Jersey, less ...

Climate Resilient Potato Systems For The 21st Century And Beyond, Brett A. Lynn

Doctoral Documents from Doctor of Plant Health Program

Climate change’s effects will dramatically reshape food systems and food security in the twenty-first century and beyond. Given potato’s susceptibility to heat and drought, climate change is poised to disproportionately affect potato production. Globally, potato is the fourth most important crop and yields a higher caloric density than any other commercial crop. Thus, disruptions to potato production bear serious implications for global food security.

In the United States, considerable potato production occurs in the arid West, which already faces water scarcity. This scarcity is anticipated to increase in many areas due to climate change. In addition to scarcity ...

Extending The Garden Season, Taun Beddes, Michael Caron, Sheriden M. Hansen, Jaydee Gunnell

All Current Publications

Many homeowners have the dream of growing fresh vegetables year-round. Unfortunately, in colder climates, this is only possible using a complete greenhouse with supplemental heating/cooling and lights. Greenhouses can be excessively expensive to maintain and heat, making them impractical for most homeowners. This is not only due to cold winter temperatures but shorter day lengths and lower available light that must be offset artificially. There are practical, less expensive ways to obtain self-grown produce earlier and later in the growing season, though, by using season-extending techniques. These include using equipment such as cold frames, high tunnels, low tunnels, floating ...

Genetically Explicit Model May Explain Multigenerational Control Of Emergent Turing Patterns In Hybrid Mimulus, Emily Simmons

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Watersmart: A Platform For Drought Forecast In Intermountain West With The Optimized Multi-Model Ensemble Approach, Wei Zhang

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Pruning Timing, Leaf Removal, And Shoot Thinning On 'Midsouth' Winegrape Quality In South Mississippi, Haley Nicole Williams

Theses and Dissertations

‘MidSouth’, a relatively low maintenance interspecific hybrid bunch grape currently grown in South Mississippi, has low sugar and high acid levels for red wine use. Two studies, conducted at the Mississippi State University McNeill Research Unit in 2020 and 2021, determined the effects of pruning timing, leaf removal, and shoot thinning on ‘MidSouth’ development and fruit and wine quality. Treatments in the first study included early versus normal pruning timing, both with and without leaf removal, and treatments in the second study included leaf removal, shoot thinning, and control vines. Cluster temperatures, leaf chlorophyll, berries per cluster, berry and cluster ...

Evaluating Cover Crops To Determine The Best Management Practice For The Suppression Of Tall Waterhemp And Italian Ryegrass, Samuel R. Reeves

Theses and Dissertations

To combat herbicide resistance among weeds, non-herbicide methods of control, such as cover crops, are becoming widely adapted. Experiments were conducted to determine how to effectively establish and manage cover crops in order to suppress tall waterhemp and Italian ryegrass and to assess their overall impact on soybean growth and yield. Various cover crop establishment methods were evaluated, and it was determined that interseeding at the R7 growth stage of soybean was the least effective method for proper cover crop establishment. Biomass data demonstrated that interseeding created the least amountof cover crop biomass, with no differences found among the other ...

Isolation Of Arabidopsis Thaliana Plants Homozygous For An Insertional Inactivation Mutation Within Atprp4., Sydney Raitz, Timothy D. Trott

Faculty Works

The AtPRP4 gene in Arabidopsis thaliana has been shown to function in several specific parts of the plant’s cell wall. It is shown to be expressed in the seeds, radicles, roots, leaves, inflorescences, and embryos of Arabidopsis thaliana. These patterns have suggested unique functions for ATPRP4 in determining cell-type-specific wall structure during the development of a plant as well as contributing to defense reactions against physical damage to the plant and pathogen infection within the plant. In this study, a simple DNA prep was performed on the true leaves of Arabidopsis thaliana. Subsequent PCR reactions were performed using AtPRP4F ...

Evaluating The Effect Of Coated Urea And Urea-Ammonium-Nitrate Solution On Cane Tonnage, Sugar Yield, And Leaf-Soil Nitrogen Content Under Louisiana Sugarcane Production System, Hector J. Mendoza Lagos

LSU Master's Theses

Nitrogen (N) is a crucial nutrient for proper plant growth and development. N deficiency results in poor tillering and thin, short internode stem production for sugarcane production, thus resulting in low cane tonnage. Therefore, proper N fertilizer management is essential for a sustainable sugarcane production system. This research was conducted at the LSU AgCenter Sugar Research Station in St. Gabriel, LA, from 2019 to 2020 at three Sites (Site 1, 2, and 3). The treatments consisted of different N rates (0, 45, 90, and 135 kg N ha^-1) and sources (urea-ammonium-nitrate solution [UAN]-32%, 30-day [Coated Urea 1], 45-day ...

Site-Specific Pest Management In Nebraska Corn And Soybean Production Systems, Zachary D. Rystrom

Doctoral Documents from Doctor of Plant Health Program

Site-specific management (SSM) is widely used by farm producers to fertilize their fields. However, whole field management is currently practiced in integrated pest management (IPM). Site-specific management and agricultural technology can improve IPM especially when precision application of inputs can reduce selection pressure on pest populations, benefit the environment, or save costs of inputs. There is potential for site-specific pest management (SSPM) where pests, or environments vary spatially, and recommended management practices can be applied with precision. Three case studies are evaluated for SSPM to be applied in Nebraska corn and soybean production systems including corn rootworm, preemergence herbicides, and ...

Economic Viability Of Weed Management Strategies In High-Tunnel Tomato, Gracie Morrison

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Cost-effective weed suppression is an important consideration for tomato growers. Growers often choose methods which minimize hand labor, as hand weeding can be prohibitively expensive. This project determined economic viability of high tunnel tomatoes treated with several methods of weed control, both organic and chemical. These methods included: 2-week hand weeding, 1-week hand weeding, preemergent, straw, landscape fabric, and untreated weedy control plots. These treatments were applied to randomized blocks in a high-tunnel. Weeding, planting, and harvest were all timed to determine labor and material costs of weed management strategy implementation. After harvest, marketable yield was weighed to determine revenue ...

Effects Of One-Pass Microwave Drying On Rice’S Utilization In The Brewing Process., Christopher Stuckey

Food Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Rice is utilized as an adjunct grain by the beer manufacturing industry. Before utilization, the rice has to be dried to a desired moisture content. The drying process employed may have an impact on the rice’s physicochemical properties which influence the rice’s performance in the brewing process. This study focused on investigating the impact of microwave drying on rice’s physicochemical properties and utilization in the brewing process. Rough rice samples at an initial moisture content of 19.7% wet basis were exposed to microwave dryer set to deliver 525 kJ/kg of energy in a single drying ...

A Small Stem Assay For Chestnut Blight Resistance In Hybrid American Chestnut Trees, Evelyn Odle

Honors Theses

Cryphonectria parasitica (Murr.) Barr is the causal agent for the chestnut blight disease, which was brought to North America in the late 19th century on nursery stock from Japan (Anagnostakis 1987). A pandemic of chestnut blight lasted for the next half century, nearly wiping out all American chestnut trees (Castanea dentata Borkh.). Restoration works to restoring the American chestnut to its native range in North America’s canopy has been going on for the past century. The American Chestnut Foundation has strived to breed a resistant American chestnut by backcross breeding with Chinese species (C. mollissima Blume) since the 1980s ...

Examining The Invasion Of Bush Honeysuckle Through A Phylogenetic Analysis, Phoebe Bruffett

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

The mechanisms underlying the continual spread of invasive plants within their respective non-native ranges is a major focal point to invasion research. Many theories have been proposed to understand these invasions, each with different implications for the predicted range for invasive plants. Lonicera maackii provides an exceptional opportunity to examine the effectiveness of these theories to explain the trends of invasive plants. Lonicera maackii is native to eastern Asia, but has invaded much of the eastern United States, presenting a severe threat to the health of forest and other natural areas. Recent analysis of the climatic envelopes uncovered a significant ...

Root Phenotyping Of Peptide-Treated Glycine Max, Salem Jackson

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Plant elicitor peptides (Peps) – endogenous chains of amino acids involved in natural plant defense – have been shown to decrease damage from herbivores and pathogens by inducing an immune response, increasing the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCS), transcripts, and metabolites. Exogenous treatment of soybean seeds with plant elicitor peptide GmPep3 has been shown to induce these broad-spectrum defenses and offers a new method for increasing crop yield. However, the effects of GmPep3 on indicators of soybean health – root characteristics, growth stages, etc. – have not been fully realized.

Using the root-phenotyping platform RhizoVision Explorer, several root traits of soybean plants treated ...

Lawrence Kaplan (14 April 1926-6 March 1918), Emily Kaplan

Andean Past

This is an appreciation of the life and work of archaeobotanist Lawrence Kaplan, a specialist in domesticated beans.

Regional Plant Community Differences In The Nebraska Sandhills, Travis Millikan

Theses, Dissertations, and Student Research in Agronomy and Horticulture

The Nebraska Sandhills is very valuable to the state of Nebraska, representing one of the most in-tact and largest grassland ecosystems in temperate regions in the world. Rangeland managers must understand plant community dynamics across the Sandhills to better inform management decisions. The first objective of this study was to evaluate plant community variability on upland Sands ecological sites across different precipitation zones in the Nebraska Sandhills. The second objective of our study was to utilize the Rangeland Analysis Platform (RAP) to examine spatial and temporal variability in biomass production and cover on pastures of ranches analyzed in the first ...

Native And Non-Native Ant Impacts On Soil Microbes, Hannah A. Stewart

Biology Theses

Organisms produce chemical weapons for defense, but target organisms can develop resistance. In their introduced range, non-native species may bring “novel weapons” against which native organisms have not co-evolved resistance. The invasive European fire ant (Myrmica rubra) may have brought antimicrobial secretions to the Northeastern United States that are novel weapons against native fungal and bacterial soil organisms. I hypothesized that M. rubra would better inhibit seed pathogens resulting in greater emergence of native myrmecochorous Viola sororia seeds and, as a side effect, more strongly inhibit arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi than a native seed dispersing ant (Aphaenogaster picea). I also expected ...