Novel adaptations often cause pleiotropic reductions in fitness. Under optimal conditions individual organisms may be able to compensate for, or reduce, these fitness costs. Declining environmental quality may therefore lead to larger costs. We investigated whether reduced plant quality would increase the fitness costs associated with resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis in two populations of t...

Net intraspecific density dependence experienced by insect herbivores at the scale of single plants can be a function both of induced resistance in the plant and other interactions among individual herbivores. Theory suggests that non-linearity in the form of this density dependence can influence the effects of plants on herbivore population dynamics. This study examined both net density depend...

abstract in order to study the effect of planting density and branch pruning on growth, yield and quality of greenhouse muskmelon, a study has been conducted using a factorial experiment in a completely randomized design with three replications and three factors, including cultivar (galia-52 and mirella), branch pruning (1 and 2 branch per plant), and plant density (2, 2.4, 2.8 and 3.6 plants p...

A plant's performance and interactions with other trophic levels are recorgnized to be contingent upon plant diversity and underlying associational dynamics, but far less is known about the plant traits driving such phenomena. We manipulated diversity in plant traits using pairs of plant and a substitutive design to elucidate the mechanisms underlying diversity effects operating at a fine spati...

1. Although it is well established that different plant species vary considerably in the quality of pollinator rewards they offer, it is unclear how plant reproductive systems, in particular an obligate dependence on insects for pollination, might influence the evolution of pollinator rewards. Moreover, unlike the interaction between nectar reward and pollinator visitation, we have a limited un...

to evaluate of quantitative and qualitative yield of two basil (ocimum basilicum l.) medicinal plants as affected by planting pattern and plant density, an experiment carried out in factorial arrangement basis on randomized complete block design with three replications. two varieties (green and purple) of basil, two planting patterns (single and double row) and four plant densities (40, 60, 80 ...

Interest in plant-based diets is increasing, evidenced by scientific and regulatory recommendations, including Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Dietitians provide guidance in dietary protein selection but little is known about how familiar dietitians are with the quality of plant versus animal proteins or methods for measuring protein quality. Likewise, there is a need to explore their beliefs...

Climatic extreme events can cause the shift or disruption of plant-insect interactions due to altered plant quality, e.g. leaf carbon to nitrogen ratios, and phenology. However, the response of plant-herbivore interactions to extreme events and climatic gradients has been rarely studied, although climatic extremes will increase in frequency and intensity in the future and insect herbivores repr...

1. Plant quality (bottom-up effects) and natural enemies (top-down effects) affect herbivore performance. Furthermore, plant quality can also influence the impact of natural enemies. 2. Lower plant quality through reduced irrigation increased the abundance of the cryptic species from the Bemisia tabaci complex [hereafter B. tabaci Middle East Asia Minor 1 (MEAM1)], but not its natural enemies o...

Plant species act as natural bioindicators of atmospheric pollutants. Plants can be used as bioassay systems for monitoring atmospheric pollutants. Plant injury symptoms, altered growth and reproductive pattern, changes in yield and/or productivity, and changes in species distribution can be used singly or in combination as monitoring devices. The results must be accepted as semiquantitative, b...