BACKGROUND AND AIMS Cold is a major constraint for cereal cultivation under temperate climates. Winter-hardy plants interpret seasonal changes and can acquire the ability to resist sub-zero temperatures. This cold acclimation process is associated with physiological, biochemical and molecular alterations in cereals. Brachypodium distachyon is considered a powerful model system to study the resp...

Miscanthus × giganteus grown in cool temperate regions of North America and Europe can exhibit severe mortality in the year after planting, and poor frost tolerance of leaves. Spartina pectinata (prairie cordgrass), a productive C4 perennial grass native to North America, has been suggested as an alternative biofuel feedstock for colder regions; however, its cold tolerance relative to M. × giga...

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are harmful to living organisms due to the potential oxidation of membranes, DNA, proteins, and carbohydrates. Freezing injury has been shown to involve the attack of ROS. Antioxidant enzymes can protect plant cells from oxidative stress imposed by freezing injury, therefore, cold acclimation may involve an increase in the expression of antioxidant enzymes. In this...

Our long-term goal is to develop a Swedish winter oat (Avena sativa). To identify molecular differences that correlate with winter hardiness, a winter oat model comprising of both non-hardy spring lines and winter hardy lines is needed. To achieve this, we selected 294 oat breeding lines, originating from various Russian, German, and American winter oat breeding programs and tested them in the ...

Leaf phenology varies markedly across tree species of temperate deciduous forests. Early leafing in spring may increase light capture and carbon gain prior to canopy closure, allowing saplings to survive in understory sites deeply shaded in midsummer. We quantified sapling leaf phenology for 18 tree species and seasonal variation in understory light availability at three sites along a ridge-slo...

Spring wheat is cultivated early in the spring in moderate climatic areas or cultivated late in the winter when freezing period is over. To understand plant's response to the cold stress, former studies have led researchers to the identification of several proteins either in wheat or in other plants. In order to achieve further information regarding with the mechanism of spring wheat response t...

Plants adapted to cold winters go through annual cycles of gain followed by loss of freezing tolerance (cold acclimation and deacclimation). Warm spells during winter and early spring can cause deacclimation, and if temperatures drop, freezing damage may occur. Many plants are vernalized during winter, a process making them competent to flower in the following summer. In winter cereals, a coinc...

This study evaluated seasonal differences (spring and summer) in the processing of Typhu ungustifolia leaves in a Mediterranean river. The experiment extended over 120 days, corresponding to six sampling periods for each experiment. Leaves (5 g) were placed in 0.5 cm mesh-size bags. After recovering the sample, macroinvertebrates inside the leaf bags were retrieved and the leaves preserved by f...

Despite relatively good knowledge of the biogeochemistry of Siberian thermokarst lakes during summer base flow, their seasonal dynamics remains almost unexplored. This work describes the chemical composition of ∼ 130 thermokarst lakes ranging in size from a few m to several km, located in the discontinuous permafrost zone. Lakes were sampled during spring flood, just after the ice break (early ...