Other Plant Sciences Commons^™

An Assessment Of Vegetable Production Constraints, Trait Preferences And Willingness To Adopt Sustainable Intensification Options In Kenya And Uganda, Rose N. Okoma, Evanson R. Omuse, Daniel M. Mutyambai, Dennis Beesigamukama, Marius F. Murongo, Sevgan Subramanian, Frank Chidawanyika

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Global food production systems are under pressure due to population increase, limited farmland, biotic and abiotic constrains, and ongoing climate change. Sustainable intensification is needed to increase agricultural productivity with minimal adverse environmental and social impacts. Vegetable-integrated push pull (VIPP) technology coupled with black soldier fly (BSF) frass offer such opportunities to smallholder farmers. However, farmers’ vegetable preferences and willingness to adopt these innovations remain unknown and are variable across various geographic scales. Focus group discussions (FGDs) and in-person interviews with smallholder farmers were conducted to assess vegetable production constraints and select vegetables to be integrated into VIPP coupled with …

Assessing The Potential For Bigleaf Maple Syrup Production In Humboldt County, Ca, David A. Reinhart, Juan A. Ramos-Cool, Liam H. Richardson

Undergraduate Scholarship

The bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum, Pursh) is the largest maple of the Pacific Northwest. While it has generally been treated as a nuisance in timber harvesting operations, a small amount of research has been conducted on its sugaring ability in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. This research has yet to reach further south in the species' range. This study aims to help a California landowner understand which maple trees on his property produce the most maple sap, to gauge what environmental factors contribute to maple sap production, and to find greater implications for the production of maple sap …

Introduction To Hydroponics- 2025-2026 Workshop Handbook, Stacy A. Adams

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Hydroponically grown plants grow faster than traditional production systems, with greater productivity, greater palatability, and having optimal visual character. Three principal components of a system include the plant support platform, a nutrient solution reservoir, and an interface for the root-solution. This publication provides in-depth explanation to system design, evaluation of water quality, nutrient formulation, and prototype systems that can be easily constructed for those wanting to explore hydroponics, such as educators, organizational leaders, or home enthusiasts.

They Forgot We Were Seeds: Critical Counter-Narratives Supporting Culturally Informed Community Seed Work, Florentina Rodriguez

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This Professional Innovation dissertation utilizes Critical Counter-Narrative both as research methodology to generate narrative reflections and as praxis for liberatory transformation. Through research vignettes adapted from the author’s experience with critical collaborative autoethnographic seed work, this study produced critical counter-narratives aimed at addressing inequities in small-scale seed systems. These counter-narratives were incorporated into curriculum materials synthesized as an educational toolkit for a professional research

sister-project: the new Culturally Informed Community Seed Pledge and Code of Ethics (CICSP/COE). This project seeks to address disparity and extractive practices; outline relational pathways for reciprocity and respecting communities of origin; and provide evaluation metrics …

Foraging Opportunists: Encouraging Reconnection With The Land, Madelyne Miller, Sylvia Blodorn, Aine Fannon, Ada Scott, Luke Pruitt

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Contextualizing the history of opportunist and native plant species opens options for land management and reconnection to cultural land practices. By recognizing that opportunist species often spread as a result of relocation for practical usage, we determine that reintroducing these uses can lead to an escalation in harvesting these plants. Uses of opportunist plants are diverse and include food sources, artistic practices, and medicine. Foraging also leads to improved human-land-connectedness as well as a deeper connection to ancestral and cultural traditions, which has been found to improve mental health. Focusing on this method of land management will limit the need …

Greenhouse Management For The Smaller Structure--Educational And Hobby, Stacy A. Adams

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Greenhouses used for teaching or by hobbyist are smaller than those used for commercial production or found in the retail environment. Structural materials, covering, mechanical equipment, and control systems often are packaged as a kit made available through greenhouse suppliers. Supplier construction services may not be available, in which buyers must use local contractors to complete the installation. Greenhouses are unique structures that differ greatly from sheds or other outbuildings. They have coverings that allow maximum light transmittance, protected from UV degradation, and can handle wide inside to outside temperature extremes. This extension circular provides valuable information on the character, …

Terrarium- An Ecosystem In A Jar, Stacy A. Adams

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

STEM education is supported through hand's-on activities in the classroom. Content understanding and reaffirmation of knowledge is supported through this informative STEM-Quick card that teachers or extension educators can distribute to participants for reference. Terrariums provide an example of a closed ecosystem where water and carbon cycling is demonstrated and plant growth can be observed. This card presents the steps to building and caring for an easy to create terrarium.

Best Management Practices: Sambucus Canadensis Propagation Techniques, Hannah Berendzen

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

American elderberry (Sambucus nigra ssp. canadensis) is a fruit-bearing shrub native to North America, traditionally utilized for medicinal and culinary purposes. In recent years, its popularity has surged due to emerging research supporting its immune-boosting properties. Despite its growing demand, standardized best management practices for elderberry cultivation, particularly propagation techniques, remain lacking. This study aims to clarify propagation recommendations by examining the influence cutting size and stem diameter on rooting success. A field study was conducted from February to May 2024, in which one-node and two-node dormant hardwood elderberry cuttings of varying stem diameters were planted in small …

Evaluating Impacts Of Footpaths On Resiliency Of Restored Dunes At Tybee Island, Georgia, Skyler J. Fox

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Sand dunes provide critical ecosystem services including storm protection by acting as natural barriers. However, these systems are threatened by human disturbance, particularly pedestrian traffic occurring at footpaths that damages dune vegetation. Vegetation is essential to dune growth and stability, as dune plants trap and bind sand. When trampled, dunes become more vulnerable to erosion and less effective at providing coastal protection. On Tybee Island, Georgia—a popular tourist destination—a vegetated dune was constructed in 2020 to enhance storm protection. This study assessed how footpaths impact dune resiliency and aimed to inform management strategies. I evaluated: (1) how characteristics of vegetation, …

Salinity Effects On Cu(Ii) Bioremediation By Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii Microalgae, Jennifer Hughes

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Microalgae offer a sustainable approach to wastewater treatment by removing pollutants such as excess nutrients, CO₂, and heavy metals. Among various species, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii shows strong potential in removing Cu(II) ions from wastewater. In addition, salinity stress in C. reinhardtii has been linked to morphological and metabolic changes that enhance lipid and phytochemical production. While salinity stress has been studied for enhancing biofuel production, its impact on microalgal removal of heavy metals, particularly Cu(II), remains largely unexplored. Understanding how varying salinity conditions affect both algal growth and the efficiency of Cu(II) remediation could provide critical insights for improving integrated wastewater …

Re-Indigenizing And Collaboratively Tending Urban Greenspaces, Divinity Nnenne Adewale

University Honors Theses

This work details the active process of land tending with the intention of re-Indigenization in the Pacific Northwest at several Portland sites; The Native American Student Community Center, PSU Oak Savanna, and the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. Land tending is an intuitive process, one rooted in love and respect for life of all forms as well as becoming the perpetual student; land tending is not a skill to be mastered, only practiced. Unlike environmental management, tending cannot be done separate from the earth, in a classroom or otherwise. Connections are what tending is built on top of: the foundation; effort …

Mountain Big Sagebrush Restoration In Former Dryland Pasture, Elizabeth Bailey, Eric Thacker, Thomas Monaco, Kari E. Veblen

All Current Publications

Our study supports using older naturally grown sagebrush plants (wildlings) for restoration efforts. Wildlings had already faced various environmental stresses before transplantation and then had a survival advantage when transplanted. Our study also demonstrates how successfully established transplants planted in “islands” aid in the future recruitment of sagebrush. Overall, because of their higher survival, we found that wildlings led to higher sagebrush densities and were a more cost-effective approach.

Phytoplankton Responses To Changing Irradiance And Carbon Fertilization, Alison Siersma

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

Phytoplankton play a crucial role in marine ecosystems due to their innate ability to fix carbon. As atmospheric CO2 levels continue to rise from fossil fuel combustion, the resulting increase in dissolved CO2 and the concurrent decrease in ocean pH are likely to impact the phytoplankton community. The response of phytoplankton to elevated CO2 can vary significantly among species and environmental conditions (e.g. light, temperature, nutrient availability). To address these variations, an experiment was conducted using a controlled photobioreactor system, maintaining high and low light, constant temperature, nutrient levels, and two pCO2 concentrations. This study focused on two regionally relevant …

Broad-Spectrum Resistance To Fungal Foliar Diseases In Wheat: Recent Efforts And Achievements, Amira M.I. Mourad, Asmaa A.M. Ahmed, P. Stephen Baenziger, Andreas Börner, Ahmed Sallam

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Wheat (Triticum spp.) is one of the most important cereal crops in the world. Several diseases affect wheat production and can cause 20-80% yield loss annually. Out of these diseases, stripe rust, also known as yellow rust (Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici), stem rust (Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici), leaf rust (Puccinia recondita), and powdery mildew (Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici) are the most important fungal diseases that infect the foliar part of the plant. Many efforts were made to improve wheat resistance to these diseases. Due to the continuous advancement in …

Disentangling Genotype And Environment Specific Latent Features For Improved Trait Prediction Using A Compositional Autoencoder, Anirudha Powadi, Talukder Zaki Jubery, Michael C. Tross, James C. Schnable, Baskar Ganapathysubramanian

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

In plant breeding and genetics, predictive models traditionally rely on compact representations of high-dimensional data, often using methods like Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and, more recently, Autoencoders (AE). However, these methods do not separate genotype-specific and environment-specific features, limiting their ability to accurately predict traits influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. We hypothesize that disentangling these representations into genotype-specific and environment-specific components can enhance predictive models. To test this, we developed a compositional autoencoder (CAE) that decomposes high-dimensional data into distinct genotype-specific and environment-specific latent features. Our CAE framework employed a hierarchical architecture within an autoencoder to effectively separate …

Industrial Hemp Biomass Negatively Affected By Herbicide Drift From Corn And Soybean Herbicides, Milos Zaric, Bruno Canella Vieira, Barbara Houston, Guilherme Sousa Alves, Samuel E. Wortman, Julie A. Peterson, Greg R. Kruger

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

The establishment of industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) fields near row crops has raised concerns about the potential adverse effects of herbicide drift on hemp production. This study examined hemp susceptibility to drift of herbicides registered for use in corn and/or soybeans. Herbicide solutions (2,4-D, dicamba, glufosinate, glyphosate, imazethapyr, lactofen, mesotrione) were applied separately in the wind tunnel (3.6 m s⁻¹ airspeed), simulating drift scenarios, with conventional TP95015EVS (TP) and air inclusion AI95015EVS (AI) flat fan nozzles calibrated to deliver 140 L ha⁻¹ carrier volume at 230 kPa. Mylar cards and hemp plants (20–25 cm tall) were placed …

Examining Wildfire Dynamics Using Ecostress Data With Machine Learning Approaches: The Case Of South-Eastern Australia's Black Summer, Yuanhui Zhu, Shakthi B. Murugesan, Ivone K. Masara, Soe W. Myint, Joshua B. Fisher

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Wildfires are increasing in risk and prevalence. The most destructive wildfires in decades in Australia occurred in 2019–2020. However, there is still a challenge in developing effective models to understand the likelihood of wildfire spread (susceptibility) and pre-fire vegetation conditions. The recent launch of NASA's ECOSTRESS presents an opportunity to monitor fire dynamics with a high resolution of 70 m by measuring ecosystem stress and drought conditions preceding wildfires. We incorporated ECOSTRESS data, vegetation indices, rainfall, and topographic data as independent variables and fire events as dependent variables into machine learning algorithms applied to the historic Australian wildfires of 2019–2020. …

Nebline, November/December 2024

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Positive Insights Shared Regarding CHIME: Head Start University Partnership Project, Jaci Fogel

Diabetes Awareness: Small Changes, Big Impact, Kayla Colgrove

Recipe of the Month: Turkey Cranberry Meatballs, Kayla Colgrove

Commercial/ Noncommercial Pesticide License

Love Gardening? Become a Master Gardener!

Garden Guide: Things to Do This Month

Upcoming Green Industry Conferences

Managing the Demands of Water & Wastewater Systems Can Make Gatherings More Enjoyable, Becky Schauerman

It’s Time to Plant Fall Cover Crops, John Nelson

A Quick Guide to Fleas, Kait Chapman

Heart of 4-H Award: Shane Cuttlers and Dena Noe

4-H Specialty Clubs Invite New Members

Nebraska 4-H Fed Steer …

Twas Facilitates Gene-Scale Trait Genetic Dissection Through Gene Expression, Structural Variations, And Alternative Splicing In Soybean, Delin Li, Qi Wang, Yu Tian, Xiangguang Lyv, Hao Zhang, Huilong Hong, Huawei Gao, Yan-Fei Li, Chaosen Zhao, Jiajun Wang, Ruizhen Wang, Jinliang Yang, Bin Liu, Patrick S. Schnable, James C. Schnable, Ying-Hui Li, Li-Juan Qiu

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

A genome-wide association study (GWAS) identifies trait-associated loci, but identifying the causal genes can be a bottleneck, due in part to slow decay of linkage disequilibrium (LD). A transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) addresses this issue by identifying gene expression–phenotype associations or integrating gene expression quantitative trait loci with GWAS results. Here, we used self-pollinated soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr.) as a model to evaluate the application of TWAS to the genetic dissection of traits in plant species with slow LD decay. We generated RNA sequencing data for a soybean diversity panel and identified the genetic expression regulation of 29 …

Scaling Individual Tree Transpiration With Thermal Cameras Reveals Interspecies Differences To Drought Vulnerability, Mostafa Javadian, Donald M. Aubrecht, Joshua B. Fisher, Russell L. Scott, Sean P. Burns, Jen L. Diehl, J. William Munger, Andrew D. Richardson

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Understanding tree transpiration variability is vital for assessing ecosystem water-use efficiency and forest health amid climate change, yet most landscape-level measurements do not differentiate individual trees. Using canopy temperature data from thermal cameras, we estimated the transpiration rates of individual trees at Harvard Forest and Niwot Ridge. PT-JPL model was used to derive latent heat flux from thermal images at the canopy-level, showing strong agreement with tower measurements (R2 = 0.70–0.96 at Niwot, 0.59–0.78 at Harvard at half-hourly to monthly scales) and daily RMSE of 33.5 W/m2 (Niwot) and 52.8 W/m2 (Harvard). Tree-level analysis revealed species-specific responses to …