five genotypes of chickpea as a half diallel crossed with each other, in 2008, 5 parents and 10 progenies were planted as randomized complete block design and some traits including days to podding, basal pod height, number of pods per plant, number of double seed pods per plant, number of single seed pods per plant, number of empty pods per plant, seeds per plant and seed yield per plant were e...

The effect-response framework states that plant functional traits link the abiotic environment to ecosystem functioning. One ecosystem property is the body size of the animals living in the system, which is assumed to depend on temperature or resource availability, among others. For primary consumers, resource availability may directly be related to plant traits, while for secondary consumers t...

Interactions between plants and insect herbivores are important determinants of plant productivity in managed and natural vegetation. In response to attack, plants have evolved a range of defenses to reduce the threat of injury and loss of productivity. Crop losses from damage caused by arthropod pests can exceed 15% annually. Crop domestication and selection for improved yield and quality can ...

genetic diversity in bean collection can be used in breeding program for selection of genotype with desirable agronomic traits. fifty two accessions of common bean (phaseolus vulgaris) has been evaluated for genetic diversity of agronomic traits, grain quality and determination of association between grain yield and some morphological traits at research farm of national plant gene bank of iran,...

Behavioural ecologists increasingly recognise spatial memory as one the most influential cognitive traits involved in evolutionary processes. In particular, spatial working memory (SWM), i.e. the ability of animals to store temporarily useful information for current foraging tasks, determines the foraging efficiency of individuals. As a consequence, SWM also has the potential to influence compe...

Plant traits are the key factors that determine herbivore foraging selection. The traits serving as defense traits against herbivores represent a wide range of traits, such as chemical, physiological, morphological and life-history traits. While many studies considered plant defense traits at the within-species scale, much less is known from comparisons of a wide range of closely related specie...

Over the past two decades a growing body of empirical research has shown that many ecological processes are mediated by a complex array of indirect interactions occurring between rhizosphere-inhabiting organisms and those found on aboveground plant parts. Aboveground-belowground studies have thus far focused on elucidating processes and underlying mechanisms that mediate the behavior and perfor...

Differences in plant and herbivore community assemblages between exotic and native ranges may select for different levels of plant traits in invasive and native populations of plant species. Little is currently known of how herbivores may mediate competitive and facilitative interactions between invasive and native populations of plant species and their plant neighbors. Here, we conducted a com...