T his volume contains a variety of chapters about the demonstrated and suspected effects of natural and human-related agents on biodiversity. The effects of human-related agents may be indirect (such as habitat or climate change) or inadvertent—perhaps even the result of well-inten-tioned efforts to preserve biodiversity, such as the isolation of nature preserves or the potential for disturbanc...

sunflower has many dry forage yields and is richer than corn in inorganic matter, protein and calcium. therefore, use of this forage in livestock diets can be valuable for elimination of food poverty. in order to determine the best harvest stage for sunflower silage, an experiment was conducted in 2007-2008 at agricultural faculty of shahid chamran university of ahvaz. a randomized complete blo...

Grasslands play a crucial role in European agriculture and ecology, but are often underutilized due to low-value end-products. The utilisation of late-harvest grass for biochar heat generation on farm-level is being studied as potential negative emissions technology. Technical (energy provision carbon sink), economic (cost vs. benefit), political (regulatory framework) social (SWOT) perspective...

Stock-recruitment models have been used for decades in fisheries management as a means of formalizing the expected number of offspring that recruit to a fishery based on the number of parents. In particular, Ricker's stock recruitment model is widely used due to its flexibility and ease with which the parameters can be estimated. After model fitting, the spawning stock size that produces the ma...

wheat grain yield is adversely affected by post-anthesis drought stress conditions in most wheat growing areas of iran. to evaluate the effect of late drought stress on wheat cultivars, a field experiment was conducted as split plot in a completely randomized block design with four replications at experimental farm of collage of agriculture, shiraz university during 2009-2010 growing season. ir...

Weather and climate parameters and their effects on crops, is one of the most effective factors in yield increase. Agro-climatic studies could be used to determine the potential of various regions and the exploit these resources to the maximum possible extent. In this study, in order to evaluate the agricultural climate of spring canola cultivation in selected stations in Hamedan province, the ...

abstract having no exact knowledge of most appropriate harvesting time in kiwifruit grown in different regions of guilan province, as well as the low storage longevity of the fruits are the most important factors causing considerable reduction in both marketability and export affairs. in this study, the influence of fruit quality in term of harvesting time on the postharvest quality and food va...

Cole crops (Brassica vegetables) can pose a significant risk for N losses during the post-harvest period due to substantial amounts of readily mineralizable N in crop residues. Amending the soil with organic C has the potential to immobilize N and thereby reduce the risk for N losses. Four field trials were conducted to determine the effects of organic C amendments (OCA) on N dynamics and sprin...

R7 stage (one seed pod at mature color; 50% of leaves yellow) produced forage that was similar in quality to Tall forage soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] cultivars in maturity alfalfa harvested at early bloom. When soybean was groups V, VI, and VII have been developed to supply forage. Our objective was to determine the effect of harvest date and row spacing grown as an intercrop with corn, the...

In the northeastern United States, many vertebrate species rely on early successional forest habitats (ESHs). ESHs may also support higher invertebrate diversity and abundance than late successional habitats (LSHs). We assessed the differences in family-level richness and biomass of understory terrestrial invertebrates during the summer season in paired ESH (3–7 years since harvest) and LSH ( 5...