This research was conducted in 2007 and 2008 cropping seasons in the experimental field of Shahid Salemi, Ahvaz, south west of Iran. In each year, the study consisted of a split split-plot experiment, using Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Four irrigation levels including irrigationoff at the 8 leaf, the 12 leaf and the tasseling stages and optimum irrigation wer...

Plants have an important impact on soil microbial communities and their functions. However, how plants determine the microbial composition and network interactions is still poorly understood. During a four-year field experiment, we investigated the functional gene composition of three types of soils (Phaeozem, Cambisols and Acrisol) under maize planting and bare fallow regimes located in cold t...

The rice water weevil, Lissorhoptrus oryzophilus, is the most destructive insect pest of rice in the United States. Early planting of rice to avoid damaging infestations of the rice water weevil has long been suggested as a management tactic. A five-year study was conducted to characterize the influence of rice planting date on rice water weevil management in light of recent trends toward earli...

The cultivation of transgenic pest-resistant cropsmay reduce pesticide application, improve production and increase economic benefit. Breeding and planting transgenic pest-resistant crops is expected to be a promising way to control pests. Pest-resistant transgenic researches in China began in the early 1990s. In 1992, China developed the country’s first Bt protein gene (CryIA gene) with the in...

Several recently-published studies have reported on evaluations of the impact of neonicotinoid insecticides on pollinators,, often accompanied by considerable media attention claiming singular importance in explaining overall pollinator health status. These studies included evaluations of potential effects of sublethal doses of neonicotinoids on honey bees, the potential effects of exposure to ...

Due to rapid population growth and urbanization, paddy rice agriculture is experiencing substantial changes in the spatiotemporal pattern of planting areas in the two most populous countries-China and India-where food security is always the primary concern. However, there is no spatially explicit and continuous rice-planting information in either country. This knowledge gap clearly hinders our ...

As an epiphyte orchid, Dendrobium catenatum relies on microorganisms for requisite nutrients. Metagenome pyrosequencing based on 16S rRNA and nifH genes was used to characterize the bacterial and diazotrophic communities associated with D. catenatum collected from 5 districts in China. Based on Meta-16S rRNA sequencing, 22 bacterial phyla and 699 genera were identified, distributed as 125 gener...

A field experiment was conducted in the Agricultural Research Station, at El-Ghoraieb, Assiut to study dry seed yield performance of two locally adapted cultivars (‘Azmerly’ and ‘Cream 7’) and two line introductions (IT81D-1032 and IT82D-812) of common cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp) grown at three different within-row spaces (20, 30 and 40 cm) and two planting dates in the summer (April 1...