Cryptic plant viruses are seed-borne dsRNA-viruses, which co-exist life-long with the host plant, without inducing any apparent symptoms. Since growth conditions and the hostvirus combination (cultivar, strain, isolate, thermotherapy, etc.) are known to influence virus multiplication, we wanted to find out what effect long-term tissue culturing has on the survival of carnation cryptic virus (Ca...

Background. Dianthus basuticus is a commonly used medicinal plant in Basotho traditional medicine for the treatment of diabetes, but there is no report on its safety or toxicity. Therefore, we evaluated the toxicity profile of the hydroethanol whole plant extract of Dianthus basuticus in Wistar rats. Methods. Acute toxicity test was performed with single oral administration of 100-3200 mg/kg bo...

In four experiments the major effect on ̄owering was that of temperature. Temperatures applied between 2 October and 20 February in ̄uenced the time of ̄owering of D. allwoodii, `Doris', while in D. alpinus, `Pike's Pink', temperatures applied over a longer period between 2 October and 11 March in ̄uenced the time of ̄owering. Keeping stock plants at low temperatures, before cuttings were taken, ...

Title of Document: EPIFAUNAL DISTURBANCE BY PERIODIC LOW DISSOLVED OXYGEN: NATIVE VERSUS INVASIVE SPECIES RESPONSE Elizabeth Bromley Jewett, Doctor of Philosophy, 2005 Directed By: Professor Kenneth Sebens, Department of Biology Dr. Anson Hines, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center Invasive species and low dissolved oxygen (DO) threaten the biodiversity and ecosystem health of estuaries wo...

Spatial shifts in insect fauna due to ecological heterogeneity can severely constrain plant reproduction. Nonetheless, data showing effects of insect visit patterns and intensity of mutualistic and/or antagonistic plant-insect interactions on plant reproduction over structured ecological gradients remain scarce. We investigated how changes in flower-visitor abundance, identity and behaviour ove...

Most important breeding goals in ornamental crops are plant appearance and flower characteristics where selection is visually performed on direct offspring of crossings. We developed an image analysis toolbox for the acquisition of flower and petal images from cultivated carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus L.) that was validated by a detailed analysis of flower and petal size and shape in 78 comme...

Hypoxia is increasing in marine and estuarine systems worldwide, primarily due to anthropogenic causes. Periodic hypoxia represents a pulse disturbance, with the potential to restructure estuarine biotic communities. We chose the shallow, epifaunal community in the lower Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, USA, to test the hypothesis that low dissolved oxygen (DO) (<4 mg l–1) affects community dynamics b...

Although there are several nuisance species of serpulids reported worldwide, the present study shows that some them have been overlooked even in geographic areas considered well studied. We report for first time Majorca invasive Ficopomatus enigmaticus and records Balearic Islands also non-native Hydroides dianthus, H. dirampha, elegans nigra. The most abundant were F. enigmaticus, found at hig...