Sustainable and successful development of the bioenergy industry strongly depends upon the amount and quality of bioenergy feedstock produced. Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) has been identified as a model lignocellulosic bioenergy crop in the U.S. Information regarding its growth and development is considered critical for making management decisions, production of high quality feedstock and ...

Initial seedling recruitment is one of the most critical stages for plants in the Mediterranean basin. Moreover, wildfires and post-fire environmental conditions might deteriorate regeneration success, which can lead to problems for sustainable forest restoration and forest persistence. On this context, different seed origins and pine species may be better adapted to new environmental condition...

The effect of different dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations on the macroinvertebrate assemblages from 2 Australian tropical streams (1 upland, 1 lowland) was measured using artificial stream mesocosms. Responses to 5-d exposures were tested. Both the upland and lowland assemblages showed a similar response. Most taxa tolerated all but very low DO levels ( 10% saturation), although a reduction ...

Quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis was performed to identify the chromosomal region controlling rice stripe virus (RSV) resistance in Japanese upland rice, Kanto 72. As a result, two QTLs were detected on chromosomes 2 and 11. Using near-isogenic lines possessing a single QTL (QTL-NILs) on chromosomes 2 and 11, the effects of two QTLs were evaluated. The target QTL regions were introduced ...

A 10-year-long field trial (between 2001 and 2010) was conducted to investigate the effect of paddy-upland rotation on rice yield, soil properties, and bacteria community diversity. Six types of paddy-upland crop rotations were evaluated: rice-fallow (control; CK), rice-rye grass (RR), rice-potato with rice straw mulches (RP), rice-rapeseed with straw incorporated into soil at flowering (ROF), ...

One of the most evident elements of the agricultural crisis is farm abandonment in many marginal rural areas, such as mountains. Some traits of mountain agriculture such as remoteness, low productivity, extreme weather and small farm size, can limit the adaptation and the competitiveness of this branch. The analysis aims to assess the consumers’ Willingness to Pay (WTP) for permanence of the up...

[1] Despite considerable research, large uncertainties exist in the various area-scales budgets of CH4 flux between soils and the atmosphere. We postulated that small wetlands greatly contribute to the CH4 budget in semiarid regions, where wetland contributions are often assumed to be insignificant. To test this hypothesis, small riparian mires of the Xilin River basin in Inner Mongolia were se...