In a previous laboratory experiment, extracts of neem (Azadirachta indica A. Juss.) and Gliricidia sepium Jacquin, locally known as mata-raton, used to control pests on crops, inhibited emissions of CO(2) from a urea-amended soil, but not nitrification and N(2)O emissions. We investigated if these extracts when applied to beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) affected their development, soil characteri...

Olive (Olea europaea L.) is an evergreen tree traditionally cultivated in the Mediterranean basin where plants undergo, to some degree, stress due to unfavourable environmental conditions. Water deficit, freezing, salinity and air pollution are a few of the stress factors restricting growth, so that olive productivity at the end of the growing season expresses only a fraction of the plant’s gen...

The biology of the pentatomid Dichelops melacanthus (Dallas) feeding on cultivated and non-cultivated plants was studied in the laboratory. Nymph mortality varied from approximately 60 on corn (seed mature) to 77% on wheat (ear immature); no nymphs survived on seedlings of corn or wheat. Nymph developmental time on soybean, corn or wheat (seed, pod or ear) varied from 25.5 to 32.8 days. Body we...

One of the main European agricultural problems is the decline in soil fertility due to the reduction of the natural soil harmony. When natural soil composition is altered, few cultivated plants replace spontaneous populations of numerous species. Man becomes the only regulator of a new fragile equilibrium between the simplified biocenosis elements. Agronomic techniques (fertilisation, irrigatio...

a significant portion of the world’s cultivated land is affected by salinity that reduces crop productivity in these areas. breeding for salt tolerance is one of the important strategies to overcome this problem. recently, genetic engineering is becoming a promising approach to improving salt tolerance. in order to improve the yield performance of canola in saline soils, we transformed canola w...

study of phytoseiid mites in some regions of western and north–westerniranwere carried out during 2008–2011. in this study, 21 species belonging to the six genera were collected and identified. they were associated with aerial parts, soil and litter under cultivated, uncultivated plants and some phytophagous mites and insects.