The genus Quercus (oak), family Fagaceae, comprises around 500 species, being one of the most important and dominant woody angiosperms in Northern Hemisphere. Nowadays, it is threatened by environmental cues, which are either biotic or abiotic origin. This causes tree decline, dieback, deforestation, can worsen a climate change scenario. In 21st century, biotechnology should take pivotal role f...

Raffaelea quercus-mongolicae is a fungus associated with oak wilt and deemed to cause extensive oak mortality in South Korea. Since the discovery of this fungus on a dead Mongolian oak (Quercus mongolica) in 2004, the mortality continued to spread southwards in South Korea. Despite continued expansion of the disease and associated significant impacts on forest ecosystems, information is lacking...

In contrast to plant-animal interactions, the conceptual framework regarding the impact of secondary metabolites in mediating plant-plant interference is currently less well defined. Here, we address hypotheses about the role of chemically-mediated plant-plant interference (i.e., allelopathy) as a driver of Mediterranean forest dynamics. Growth and defense abilities of a pioneer (Pinus halepens...

Congeneric species often have similar ecological characteristics and use similar resources. These similarities may make it easier for them to co-occur in a similar habitat but may also lead to strong competitions that limit their coexistence. Hence, how do similarities in congeneric species affect their coexistence exactly? This study mainly used spatial point pattern analysis in two 1 hm2 plot...

conclusions the results of the present study revealed that soil resources of these areas were contaminated with opportunistic amoebas such as acanthamoeba and hartmannella spp. and this may lead to severe diseases in high-risk people, such as immunocompromised patients. background free-living amoebas are very abundant in nature, especially in water and soil. some species of amoebas cause seriou...

Recent studies have shown that planted pine stands exhibit higher evapotranspiration (ET) and are more sensitive to climatic conditions compared with hardwood stands. Whether this is due to management and stand effects, biological effects or their interaction is poorly understood. We estimated growing season canopyand sap flux-scaled leaf-level transpiration (Ec and EL) in five major overstory ...

Zagros vegetation zone is one of the most important forest regions in Iran, which consists of a diverse group of arboreal species, especially oaks (Quercus spp.). Ilam province located in west of Iran and in Zagros vegetation zone which has 641000 ha of oak forests that its dominant species is Persian oak (Q. brantii). Oak trees decline is a complicated phenomenon that may result from different...