High temperature during May to July is a major hurdle for production of sorghum as fodder in Pakistan, ultimately resulting in a deficit with respect to the demand of meat and milk for increasing population. A field study was conducted to investigate the impact of exogenous application of natural plant growth-promoting substances on forage yield and quality of sorghum. Seed priming and foliar a...

Determining the foliar N: P ratio provides a tool for understanding nutrient limitation on plant production and consequently for the feeding patterns of herbivores. In order to understand the nutrient limitation at landscape scale, remote sensing techniques offer that opportunity. The objective of this study is to investigate the utility of in situ hyperspectral remote sensing to estimate folia...

BACKGROUND Zinc (Zn) biofortification through foliar Zn application is an attractive strategy to reduce human Zn deficiency. However, little is known about the biofortification efficiency and bioavailability of rice grain from different forms of foliar Zn fertilizers. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Four different Zn forms were applied as a foliar treatment among three rice cultivars under fie...

Stable carbon isotope composition (δ (13)C) usually shows a negative relationship with precipitation at a large scale. We hypothesized that sampling method affects foliar δ (13)C and its response pattern to precipitation. We selected 11 sites along a precipitation gradient in Inner Mongolia and collected leaves of Leymus chinensis with five or six replications repeatedly in each site from 2009 ...

We studied relationships among branch hydraulic conductivity, xylem embolism, stomatal conductance (gs), foliar nitrogen (N) concentration and specific leaf area (SLA) of seven tree species growing at four temperate woodland sites spanning a 464-1350 mm rainfall gradient. Specifically, we examined the question: are gs and foliar N concentration coordinated with branch hydraulic conductivity and...

Poplars are extensively cultivated worldwide, and their susceptibility to the foliar rust fungus leads to considerable damages in plantations. To better understand the molecular basis of poplar responses to the foliar rust, suppression subtractive hybridization was used to identify the potential important or novel genes involved in the Populus szechuanica infection by Melampsora larici-populina...

Leaf-cutter ants are prolific and conspicuous constituents of Neotropical ecosystems that derive energy from specialized fungus gardens they cultivate using prodigious amounts of foliar biomass. The basidiomycetous cultivar of the ants, Leucoagaricus gongylophorus, produces specialized hyphal swellings called gongylidia that serve as the primary food source of ant colonies. Gongylidia also cont...

Foliar fertilization with nitrogen (N) is used to supplement soil N application in order to meet the high N requirements of crops (Oosterhuis and Weir, 2010). Urea is the most common foliar N source in cotton, due to its relatively low toxicity, quick absorption, and low cost (Maples and Baker, 1993; McConnell et al., 1998; Oosterhuis and Bondada, 2001). However, in the literature reports of yi...

Recent studies have demonstrated that natural abundance (15)N can be a useful tool for assessing nitrogen saturation, because as nitrification and nitrate loss increase, delta(15)N of foliage and soil also increases. We measured foliar delta(15)N at 11 high-elevation spruce-fir stands along an N deposition gradient in 1987-1988 and at seven paired northern hardwood and spruce-fir stands in 1999...

We evaluated factors influencing the development of autumn red coloration in leaves of sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.) by measuring mineral nutrient and carbohydrate concentrations, water content, and phenology of color development of leaves from 16 mature open-grown trees on 12 dates from June through October 1999. Mean foliar nutrient and carbohydrate concentrations and water content were...