Botany Commons^™

Refined Teaching Methods, Systems Thinking, And Experiential Approaches Enhanced Students Learning Through Covid-19, Osler Ortez, Alyssa Kuhn, Meghan Sindelar

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

The Soil Nutrient Relationships course serves juniors and seniors with a major or minor in agronomy at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Pre-pandemic enrollment averaged 65 students. In 2021 and 2022, course enrollment was 42 and 55, respectively. The course was adjusted to a flipped design in 2017. Moving into 2021, the Soil Nutrient Relationships course underwent a major overhaul by changing the content source materials and organization of lab activities while maintaining the flipped delivery format. While responding to the COVID-19 pandemic limitations, the redesign was intended to focus limited face-to-face meetings (in person or webconference) on problem-solving activities. This …

Jumble Judging: Cognitive And Affective Outcomes Of Intercollegiate Collaboration At A Soil Judging Competition, Rebecca A. Young, Judith Turk, Nicolas A. Jelinski, Amber D. Anderson, Kerry M. Clark, Ashlee L.D. Dere, Colby J. Moorberg, Kristopher Osterloh, Deann Presley

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Student–student interactions are influential parts of field experiences. While competitive judging events are a fun way to engage students in field-based learning, the focus on competition leads to an atmosphere that discourages collaboration between students. The objective of this study was to evaluate the cognitive and affective learning outcomes resulting from intercollegiate collaboration at a soil judging competition. Teams with students from two to three different universities were assigned and referred to as jumble judging teams. Jumble judging was held for the first time in the 2021 Region 5 Collegiate Soil Judging Contest. Learning outcomeswere assessed using a pre- and …

Rare, Threatened And Endangered Non-Vascular Plants, Lichen, And Fungi Species Of Oregon (2023), Michael Russell, Sue Vrilakas, Lindsey K. Wise, Gabriel E. Campbell

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

The Oregon Biodiversity Information Center (ORBIC) is part of the Institute for Natural Resources (INR) located at Portland State University (PSU). ORBIC maintains extensive databases of Oregon biodiversity, concentrating on rare and endangered plants, animals and ecosystems. Since its creation in 1979 as the Oregon Natural Heritage Program, ORBIC has been part of the Natural Heritage network. ORBIC is a constituent member of NatureServe, a non-profit organization with a mission to provide the scientific basis for effective conservation action. NatureServe and Oregon manage data using standards and protocols used across the U.S., Canada, and much of Latin America.

ORBIC has …

Rare, Threatened And Endangered Vascular Plant Species Of Oregon (2023), Sue Vrilakas, Lindsey K. Wise, Gabriel E. Campbell, Michael Russell

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

The Oregon Biodiversity Information Center (ORBIC) is part of the Institute for Natural Resources (INR) located at Portland State University (PSU). ORBIC maintains extensive databases of Oregon biodiversity, concentrating on rare and endangered plants, animals and ecosystems. Since its creation in 1979 as the Oregon Natural Heritage Program, ORBIC has been part of the Natural Heritage network. ORBIC is a constituent member of NatureServe, a non-profit organization with a mission to provide the scientific basis for effective conservation action. NatureServe and Oregon manage data using standards and protocols used across the U.S., Canada, and much of Latin America.

ORBIC has …

Screening Spring Wheat Genotypes For Tadreb-B1 And Fehw3 Genes Under Severe Drought Stress At The Germination Stage Using Kasp Technology, Elsayed A. Elsayed, Asmaa A. M. Ahmed, Matías Schierenbeck, Schierenbeck Y. Hussein, P. Stephen Baenziger, Andreas Börner, Ahmed Sallam

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Drought stress is a major yield-limiting factor throughout the world in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), causing losses of up to 80% of the total yield. The identification of factors affecting drought stress tolerance in the seedling stage is especially important to increase adaptation and accelerate the grain yield potential. In the current study, 41 spring wheat genotypes were tested for their tolerance to drought at the germination stage under two different polyethylene glycol concentrations (PEG) of 25% and 30%. For this purpose, twenty seedlings from each genotype were evaluated in triplicate with a randomized complete block design (RCBD) in …

Long-Term Manure Application Improves Soil Health And Stabilizes Carbon In Continuous Maize Production System, Saurav Das, Daniel Liptzin, Bijesh Maharjan

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Soil health lies at the core of a sustainable food production system. A comprehensive evaluation of different agronomic practices and their effect on soil health is essential to determine the best practices that support soil ecosystem services. However, it may take years or decades to observe measurable changes in soil health under varying management practices. The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the effects of long-term (>77 years) manure and inorganic nitrogen (N) fertilizer on soil health and determine the interrelationship among the measured soil bio-physicochemical indicators. The study also aims to understand the sustainability of the monocropping …

Simulated Impacts Of Winter Rye Cover Crop On Continuous Corn Yield And Soil Parameters, Girma Birr, Andualem S. Shiferaw, Tsegaye Tadesse, Marty R. Schmer, Virginia L. Jin, Brian D. Wardlow, Katja Koehler-Cole, Tala Awada, Sarah Beebout, Teferi Tsegaye, Tulsi Kahrel

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Cover crops (CC) provide numerous ecosystem services such as improving soil health, reducing nutrient loss, increasing productivity, and mitigating greenhouse gas emission. However, adoption of CC has been hindered by perceived negative impacts on main crop productivity and additional production costs. This is partly attributed to the gap in current state of knowledge in CC and its interaction with main crop production under different biophysical conditions. In this study, Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer model was used to evaluate the long-term impact of cereal rye (Secale cereale L.) on corn (Zea mays L.) yield, soil organic carbon …

On Correlation Between Canopy Vegetation And Growth Indexes Of Maize Varieties With Different Nitrogen Efficiencies, Xia Zhao, Shuaili Wang, Tao Wen, Jiamin Xu, Bao Huang, Shufeng Yan, Gangqiang Gao, Yali Zhao, Hongping Li, Jiangfang Qiao, Jinliang Yang, Lianhai Wu, Hongwei Wang, Tianxue Liu, Xinyuan Mu

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Studying the canopy spectral reflection characteristics of different N-efficient maize varieties and analyzing the relationship between their growth indicators and spectral vegetation indices can help the breeding and application of N-efficient maize varieties. To achieve the optimal management of N fertilizer resources, developing N-efficient maize varieties is necessary. In this research, maize varieties, i.e., the low-N-efficient (Zhengdan 958, ZD958), the high-N efficient (Xianyu 335, XY335), the double-high varieties (Qiule 368, QL368), and the double inefficient-type varieties (Yudan 606 YD606), were used as materials. Results indicate that nitrogen fertilization significantly increased the vegetation indices NDVI, GNDVI, GOSAVI, and RVI of maize …

Editorial: Genetic Validation And Its Role In Crop Improvement, Ahmed Sallam, Ahmad M. Alqudah, P. Stephen Baenziger, Awais Rasheed

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Gene discovery for economically important traits has remained a challenging Frontier in crop genomics and breeding. The recent advances in DNA sequencing technologies and genetic analysis approaches paved the way for discovering many genes and hotspot genomic regions controlling target traits. The detection of novel genomic regions or candidate genes is very useful for plant breeders and geneticists to improve crops, dissect the genetics of complex traits, and understand the biological mechanisms of genes underpinning traits of interest. Quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) dominated recent crop gene discovery research. These studies are becoming routine activities …

The Intertwining Of Zn-Finger Motifs And Abiotic Stress Tolerance In Plants: Current Status And Future Prospects, Debojyoti Moulick, Karma Landup Bhutia, Sukamal Sarkar, Anirban Roy, Udit Nandan Mishra, Biswajit Pramanick, Sagar Maitra, Tanmoy Shankar, Swati Hazra, Milan Skalicky, Marian Brestic, Viliam Barek, Akbar Hossain

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Environmental stresses such as drought, high salinity, and low temperature can adversely modulate the field crop’s ability by altering the morphological, physiological, and biochemical processes of the plants. It is estimated that about 50% + of the productivity of several crops is limited due to various types of abiotic stresses either presence alone or in combination (s). However, there are two ways plants can survive against these abiotic stresses; a) through management practices and b) through adaptive mechanisms to tolerate plants. These adaptive mechanisms of tolerant plants are mostly linked to their signalling transduction pathway, triggering the action of plant …

The Effects Of Trailside/Non-Trailside Sample Collection And Tree Communities On Biodiversity Of Mushroom-Forming Fungi In Public Green Spaces Of New London, Connecticut, Quincy Dowling

Botany Honors Papers

The Kingdom Fungi holds a wealth of biodiversity and potential for better supporting both natural and human communities (Lange, 2014). Mushroom-forming fungi have potential value as sustainable and accessible sources of food in public green spaces (Rombach & Dean, 2023). The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effect of trailside disturbance and tree communities on the diversity and community composition of mushroom-forming fungi in New London, Connecticut. Six public green spaces were identified and surveyed for species richness of mushroom-forming fungi. At each site, two foraging areas of equal area were defined: one along either side of a …

The Yucca Auxin Biosynthetic Genes And Drought: How Does Gene Expression Change In Water Stressed Leaves?, Samantha Pelletier

Botany Honors Papers

As drought becomes more pronounced due to climate change, it is important to characterize the responses of plants to water stress. One area of interest includes how auxin, the hormone most associated with growth and development, is affected by drought. In particular, the final size of an expanding leaf is often reduced in response to drought and auxin is known to play a key role in leaf expansion. The YUCCA proteins catalyze the conversion of indole-3-pyruvic acid to indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), the dominant form of auxin in most plants, and most of this IAA is produced in rapidly expanding leaves. …

Dedication

Aliso: A Journal of Systematic and Floristic Botany

No abstract provided.

A Tribute To Gary D. Wallace

Aliso: A Journal of Systematic and Floristic Botany

No abstract provided.

A Vascular Flora Of The South Fork Tule River, Southern Sierra Nevada, Tulare County, California, Jessica M. Orozco

Aliso: A Journal of Systematic and Floristic Botany

I conducted a floristic study of the South Fork Tule River watershed, located in the southern Sierra Nevada in Tulare County, California. The primary objectives of this floristic study were to document and catalogue all vascular plant taxa that occur in the watershed, describe the plant communities, analyze the flora and its affinities with other areas, and establish a herbarium for the Tule River Indian Reservation. The upper reaches of the South Fork Tule River originate on the western slope of Slate Mountain in the Sequoia National Forest and drain west through the Tule River Indian Reservation into Lake Success. …

Letter From The Faculty Editor, Beth Kegley

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Woody Ornamental Disease Management Research Reports 2023, Fulya Baysal-Gurel

Extension Publications

No abstract provided.

A Vascular Flora Of The Nopah Range, Inyo County, California, Carolyn J. Mills

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The Nopah Range is an arid mountain range of the northern Mojave Desert located just east of Death Valley National Park in southeastern Inyo County, California. The study site is ca. 490 sq. km (189 sq. mi), with elevations ranging from 234 m (767 ft) to 1,949 m (6,394 ft) and includes the Nopah Range as well as portions of the California, Chicago, and Pahrump valleys. The objective of the study was to complete a specimen-based inventory of the vascular plants resulting in the production of an annotated checklist, and to assess the status of rare plant species and possible …

Nuclear Phylogeny And Insights Into Whole-Genome Duplications And Reproductive Development Of Solanaceae Plants, Jie Wang, Weibin Xu, Junwen Zhai, Yi Hu, Jing Guo, Caifei Zhang, Yiyong Zhao, Lin Zhang, Christopher T. Martine, Hong Ma, Chien-Hsun Huang

Faculty Journal Articles

Solanaceae, the nightshade family, have ∼2700 species, including the important crops potato and tomato, ornamentals, and medicinal plants. Several sequenced Solanaceae genomes show evidence for whole-genome duplication (WGD), providing an excellent opportunity to investigate WGD and its impacts. Here, we generated 93 transcriptomes/genomes and combined them with 87 public datasets, for a total of 180 Solanaceae species representing all four subfamilies and 14 of 15 tribes. Nearly 1700 nuclear genes from these transcriptomic/genomic datasets were used to reconstruct a highly resolved Solanaceae phylogenetic tree with six major clades. The Solanaceae tree supports four previously recognized subfamilies (Goetzeioideae, Cestroideae, Nicotianoideae, …

Morphological And Genetic Analysis Of The Root System In Two American Grapevines (Vitis Species), Parinaz Mohtasebi

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The North American grapes species Vitis rupestris Scheele and Vitis riparia Michx have been the pillars of rootstock breeding for many decades. Though a large body of viticultural knowledge has been accumulated on their impact on grafted scions, the genetic basis of their root system architecture (RSA) has received limited scientific attention. In this study, I generated and analyzed adventitious root systems from dormant cuttings of 22 V. riparia and 19 V. rupestris accessions, as well as 162 interspecific F1 hybrid progeny from a cross between V. rupestris (♀) and V. riparia (♂). I photographed the roots and then extracted …