Methanolic extracts (MEs) of seven brown seaweeds occurring in the Indian coastal waters were screened for their cytotoxic and antioxidant properties following various assays. The methanolic extracts of seaweeds in the order of Dictyopteris australis > Spatoglossum variabile > Stoechospermum marginatum > Spatoglossum aspermum showed significant cytotoxic activity. A very high DPPH radical scave...

Contamination of heavy metals would threaten the water and soil resources; phytoremediation can be potentially used to remediate metal contaminated sites. We constructed the Phragmites australis artificial floating wetlands outside the Qingcaosha Reservoir in the Yangtze Estuary. Water characteristic variables were measured in situ by using YSI Professional Pro Meter. Four heavy metals (copper,...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non-coding RNAs that play vital roles in plant growth, development, and stress response. Increasing numbers of studies aimed at discovering miRNAs and analyzing their functions in plants are being reported. In this study, we investigated the effect of drought stress on the expression of miRNAs and their targets in plants of a diploid and derived autotetraploid Paul...

B. Sun1,2, Yu.A. Litvinov1,3, P.M. Walker4, K. Beckert1, P. Beller1, F. Bosch1, D. Boutin1,3, C. Brandau1, L. Chen1,3, C. Dimopoulou1, H. Geissel1,3, R. Knöbel1,3, C. Kozhuharov1, J. Kurcewicz5, S.A. Litvinov1,3, M. Mazzocco1, J. Meng2, C. Nociforo1, F. Nolden1, W.R. Plass1,3, C. Scheidenberger1,3, M. Steck1, H. Weick1,3, and M. Winkler1,3 1GSI, Darmstadt; 2PKU,Beijing; 3JLU, Giessen; 4Univ. Su...

This paper presents new APEX submillimetre molecular line observations of three low-mass protostars, IRS7A, IRS7B, and IRAS32, in the R Coronae Australis molecular cloud complex. The molecular excitation analysis is performed using a statistical equilibrium radiative transfer code. The derived beam averaged fractional abundances vary by less than a factor of two among the three sources, except ...

Studies on invasive plant management are often short in duration and limited in the methods tested, and lack an adequate description of plant communities that replace the invader following removal. Here we present a comprehensive review of management studies on a single species, in an effort to elucidate future directions for research in invasive plant management. We reviewed the literature on ...

Submillimetre HCO+(J = 4− 3) mapping observations of the immediate environs of the infrared source IRS 7 in Corona Australis have provided corroborative evidence for the existence of the rotating molecular disk detailed in our earlier paper. An improved estimate of 0.8M for the mass of the central protostar is obtained.

Fishes use their mechanoreceptive lateral line system to sense nearby objects by detecting slight fluctuations in hydrodynamic motion within their immediate environment. Species of fish from different habitats often display specialisations of the lateral line system, in particular the distribution and abundance of neuromasts, but the lateral line can also exhibit considerable diversity within a...

A tier III, essential fish habitat analysis was used to evaluate the biochemical condition of common mummichog Fundulus heteroclitus residing in two isolated tidal salt marshes, one a relatively undisturbed polyhaline site dominated by Spartina alterniflora and the other a mesooligohaline site dominated by an invasive variety of Phragmites australis. Stable isotopes signatures of C, N, and S in...

The tall-statured grasses in the genus Phragmites are dominant vegetation in wetlands worldwide and thus play a vital role in ecosystem functioning. As a result, Phragmites spp. are some of the most widely studied plants; particularly in areas where changes to their abundances have occurred, most notably in Europe and North America. In southern Africa a pattern of reed expansion has occurred in...