Seed germination, seedling emergence and crop establishment are important aspects of canola production, and are the main components of seed/seedling vigour. A major concern of seed businesses and canola growers alike is loss of seed vigour that may go undetected before planting. Two vigour assays, based on off-gassing of ethyl alcohol from poor vigour seed, are being developed. They are a simpl...

Multistrata agroforestry systems with tree crops comprise a variety of land use systems ranging from plantations of coffee, cacao or tea with shade trees to highly diversified homegardens and multi-storey tree gardens. Research on plant-soil interactions has concentrated on the former. Tree crop-based land use systems are more efficient in maintaining soil fertility than annual cropping systems...

We coordinated a large-scale evaluation of northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) population response to establishment of 9-m to 37-m linear patches (buffers) of native herbaceous vegetation along rowcrop field margins as part of the Conservation Reserve Program practice Habitat Buffers for Upland Birds (CP33). We compared northern bobwhite covey densities on 1,088 paired row-crop fields with ...

The narrowing of diversity in crop species contributing to the world's food supplies has been considered a potential threat to food security. However, changes in this diversity have not been quantified globally. We assess trends over the past 50 y in the richness, abundance, and composition of crop species in national food supplies worldwide. Over this period, national per capita food supplies ...

Humans require resilient, rapidly renewable and sustainable supplies of food and many other plant-derived supplies. However, the combined effects of climate change and population growth compromise the provision of these supplies particularly in respect to global food security. Crop wild relatives (CWR) contain higher genetic diversity than crops and harbour traits that can improve crop resilien...

The cultivation of soybean in Brazil experienced an expressive growth in the last decades. Soybean is highly demanding on nitrogen (N) that must come from fertilizers or from biological fixation. The N supply to the soybean crop in Brazil relies on the inoculation with elite strains of Bradyrhizobium japonicum, B. elkanii, and B. diazoefficiens, which are able to fulfill the crop's N requiremen...

The ability of plant viruses to propagate their genomes in host cells depends on many host factors. In the absence of an agrochemical that specifically targets plant viral infection cycles, one of the most effective methods for controlling viral diseases in plants is taking advantage of the host plant's resistance machinery. Recessive resistance is conferred by a recessive gene mutation that en...