Micropropagated and seed-born silver birches (Betula pendula Roth) were compared for survival, height growth and occurrence of biotic damage (voles, hares, mooses, stem lesions and cankers) in fi eld trials in southern Finland. The material consisted of 11 clones and 10 different lots of seedlings growing in 10 fi eld trials, established in clearcut forest cultivation areas. The plants were 6–7...

In this work we present a device specifically designed to study microbial growth with several applications related to environmental microbiology and other areas of research as astrobiology. The Automated Measuring and Cultivation device (AMC-d) enables semi-continuous absorbance measurements directly during cultivation. It can measure simultaneously up to 16 samples. Growth curves using low and...

Cocaine is extracted from coca: a native bush from the Amazon rainforest. Coca is mostly grown in remote areas to avoid government intervention, and it has been increasingly cultivated inside protected areas (PAs). The effects of coca cultivation on the preservation of PAs are largely unknown. This research uses panel data (2006–2008) from a total of 684 farmers to evaluate the influence of coc...

Large-scale dairy farms around Damascus do not have enough land for forage cultivation mainly due to high price of land, allocation of land for vegetable production, which is more economically important than fodder cultivation and unfavourable climatic factors. Farms are therefore forced to transport roughage from distant crop cultivating areas. In the case of the dairy farm described in this w...

Various government agencies around the world have proposed vegetable oils and their conversion to biodiesel as a renewable alternative to fossil fuels. Due to its adaptability to marginal soils and environments, the cultivation of Jatropha curcas is frequently mentioned as the best option for producing biodiesel. In the present work the current situation of proven and potential reserves of foss...

Little is known about how cultivation legacies affect the outcome of rehabilitation seedings in the Great Basin, even though both frequently co-occur on the same lands. Similarly, there is little known about how these legacies affect native species reestablishment into these seedings. We examined these legacy effects by comparing areas historically cultivated and seeded to adjacent areas that w...

Natural resource base degradation, forest denudation, instability in crop production due to scarcity of water necessitates a thorough insight on sustainable agricultural development for conservation of natural resources not only for the present generation but also for the posterity. An attempt had been made to study the natural resource inventory of part of eastern plateau of India, using LISS ...

The decline in religious identification and corresponding increase in the unaffiliated has been one of the most important religious changes in the United Kingdom (UK). The emergence of the “religious nones” is the most obvious sign of continuing secularization and the declining social and cultural relevance of religion. Yet while the religiously-unaffiliated often form the plurality — if not so...