Responses of alpine tree line ecosystems to increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations and global warming are poorly understood. We used an experiment at the Swiss tree line to investigate changes in vegetation biomass after 9 years of free air CO2 enrichment (+200 ppm; 2001-2009) and 6 years of soil warming (+4 °C; 2007-2012). The study contained two key tree line species, Larix decidua and Pin...

This study aimed to assess the feasibility of predicting ranges in N2O emission with a boundary line approach using a few key driving factors. Intact soil cores (9 cm dia. and ~20 cm in depth) were collected from pasture, cereal cropping and sugarcane lands and incubated at various temperature and moisture conditions after addition of different forms of mineral nitrogen (NH4 and NO3). The pastu...

Soil water content impacts all soil physical, chemical and biological properties. Soil water movement in shallow soil layers has critical importance for plant water use, foundation stability, energy transfer and chemical diffusion. Numerical analysis is one way to study soil water. New numerical methods are presented in this thesis to determine soil water content from time domain reflectometry ...

Abstract: Due to the expansion of high voltage Alternating Current (AC) power transmission lines and cathodically protected buried pipelines, it is becoming more and more difficult to construct them with enough safe distances between them. Thus, the pipelines are frequently exposed to induced AC interferences, which result in perturbation of Cathodic Protection (CP) due to AC corrosion. To s...

Soil compaction is one of the main negative factors that limits plant growth and crop yield. Therefore, it is important to determine the soil resistance level and map it for the field to find solutions for the negative effects of the compaction. Nowadays, high powered communication technology and computers help us on this issue within the approach of precision agriculture applications. This stu...

It is important to understand the underlying factors that lead to shifts in soil microbial communities, not simply for the characterization of these complex biotic systems, but also to understand the impact that changes in microbial community composition may have on terrestrial ecosystems. In this study, the impact of genetically different potato (Solanum tuberosum) plants growing in arable soi...

Synthesis of heat shock proteins (HSPs) in the leaves of a drought- and heat-resistant (line ZPBL 1304), and a drought- and heat-sensitive (line ZPL 389) line of maize (Zea mays L.) was studied under two environmental stress treatments: (a) soil drying and high temperature and (b) high temperature. In the first treatment 13-day-old plants were exposed to 7-day soil drying followed by high tempe...

The aim of this paper is to present the tasks accomplished so far in a research project dealing with the electromagnetic modelling of a railway line. The project is briefly presented, and the propagation and radiation modelling of a uniform multi-conductor line above soil through the transmission-line theory is discussed. Finally the model is validated through comparisons with experimental data...

The plant defensin NaD1, from Nicotiana alata, has potent antifungal activity against a range of filamentous fungi including the two important cotton pathogens, Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. vasinfectum (Fov) and Verticillium dahliae. Transgenic cotton plants expressing NaD1 were produced and plants from three events were selected for further characterization. Homozygous plants were assessed in gre...