Influences of soil environment and willow host species on ectomycorrhizal fungi communities was studied across an hydrologic gradient in temperate North America. Soil moisture, organic matter and pH strongly predicted changes in fungal community composition. In contrast, increased fungal richness strongly correlated with higher plant-available phosphorus. The 93 willow trees sampled for ectomyc...

Due to its fast growth rate and little nursery requirements, willow is largely planted as short rotation coppice species for bioenergy resources in temperate regions. Willow coppices can be easily established by vegetative propagation of cuttings and can remain productive for up to 25 years. In China, diploid species S. leucopithecia and S. erioclada L. are two promising willow species that can...

Landfill leachates usually need to be treated before discharged, and using soil-plant systems for this has gained substantial interest in Sweden and in the UK. A three-year field study was conducted in central Sweden to quantify plant response, treatment efficiency and impact on groundwater quality of landfill leachate irrigation of short-rotation willow coppice (Salix). Two willow varieties we...

Mitochondrial DNA sequences were used to study the phylogeny, population structure and colonisation history of Parus species. The phylogenetic relationships of seven European and three American species were examined by sequencing a part of the cytochrome b gene. Phylogenetically the closest species were the great tit (Parus major) and the blue tit (P. caeruleus). Subgenus Poecile was divided in...

Growth performance and heavy metal uptake by willow (Salix viminalis) from strongly and moderately polluted calcareous soils were investigated in field and growth chamber trials to assess the suitability of willow for phytoremediation. Field uptakes were 2-10 times higher than growth chamber uptakes. Despite high concentrations of cadmium (>/=80 mg/kg) and zinc (>/=3000 mg/kg) in leaves of will...

Canopy-forming shrubs are reported to be increasing at sites around the circumpolar Arctic. Our results indicate expansion in canopy cover and height of willows on Herschel Island located at 70 degrees north on the western Arctic coast of the Yukon Territory. We examined historic photographs, repeated vegetation surveys, and conducted monitoring of long-term plots and found evidence of increase...

Nacrtak An experiment on the growing and harvesting of willow trees aimed at short rotation forestry was conducted in northern Japan. Willows were harvested using a sugarcane harvester from southern Japan during its agricultural off-season. The growing experiment showed the high potential of willow plantations to produce woody biomass of more than 10 dry-t/ha/y. The harvesting experiment showed...

Flight feather moult in small passerines is realized in several ways. Some species moult once after breeding or once on their wintering grounds; others even moult twice. The adaptive significance of this diversity is still largely unknown. We compared the resistance to mechanical fatigue of flight feathers from the chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita, a migratory species moulting once on its bree...

the study aims at investigating the investigating the interrogative style of poet ibrahim al-makadmeh, who died in 2003. such investigation adopt the scientific and statistical approach which aims at specifying the different patterns of every question word andoutlining the syntactic fatures characterizing thepoets style. the study comprises the numder and percentages of style occrance of each q...