Microbial colonization of soil-incorporated, C-labeled, crimson clover and ryegrass straw residues was followed under western Oregon field conditions from late summer (September) to the following early summer (mid-June) by measuring the C content of phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) extracted from residues recovered from soil. Residue type influenced the rate of appearance of specific PLFA during ...

The molecular basis behind shade tolerance in plants is not fully understood. Previously, we have shown that a connection may exist between shade tolerance and dwarfism, however, the mechanism connecting these phenotypes is not well understood. In order to clarify this connection, we analyzed the transcriptome of a previously identified shade-tolerant mutant of perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenn...

Source populations of polyphagous pests often occur on host plants other than the economically damaged crop. We evaluated the contribution of patches of a non-native meadow grass, Lolium multiflorum Lam. (Poaceae), and other weeds growing in fallow fields or meadows as source hosts of an important native pest of rice, Stenotus rubrovittatus (Matsumura) (Hemiptera: Miridae), in an agricultural ...

Field experiments were conducted to study weed population shifts in long-term conservation tillage systems. The objectives of this study were to determine weed community abundance, diversity and composition on conventional tillage (CT), minimum tillage (MT), no-tillage with paraplow (ZT) and no-tillage (NT) systems, and to identify species that are associated with specific tillage systems. The ...

Eight forages (alfalfa, birdsfoot trefoil, red clover, bromegrass, orchardgrass, perennial ryegrass, quackgrass, and timothy) at three maturities were evaluated for ruminal DM, CP, and NDF degradation kinetics. Duplicate dacron bags were incubated for 0, 3, 6, 10, 13, 25, 48, and 72 h in two late lactation Holstein cows fitted with ruminal cannulas over eight experimental periods. Species and m...

An experiment was designed to determine the effect of the fungal endophyte Neotyphodium lolii on the growth, physiological parameters and mineral element content of perennial ryegrass (Lolium perennel L.), when growing at two N supply levels. Endophyte infection had a significant positive effect on both shoot and root growth of ryegrass, but this difference was only significant in the high N su...

Based on a site experiment on a typical steppe of Inner Mongolia, the short term effects on aboveground biomass, soil water content, soil organic carbon, and soil total nitrogen of four cultivated pastures (CPs) with different compositions of herbaceous species were examined and compared to those of adjacent, natural grassland (NG) enclosed simultaneously. All CPs produced significantly higher ...

Bioassay techniques are often used to study the effects of allelochemicals on plant processes, and it is generally observed that the processes are stimulated at low allelochemical concentrations and inhibited as the concentrations increase. A simple empirical model is presented to analyze this type of response. The stimulation-inhibition properties of allelochemical-dose responses can be descri...

The present study explores the potential of directly linking phylogenetic identities obtained by cloning and sequencing of ITS sequences to dominant ribotypes of molecular community fingerprints to give further insight into dominant members of the communities in three Irish grassland soils. The ten most abundant bacterial ribotypes of untreated bare soils of three grassland microcosms were chos...