Growth,morphology and gas exchange responses of two-year-old Quercus castaneifolia seedlings to flooding stress

Tolerance to flooding is crucial when thinking in promissory species for restoration of ecosystems prone to suffer soil water excess. In this study, we tested the flooding tolerance of two-years-old seedlings of Chestnut-leaved oak (Quercus castaneifolia C.A.Mey.) to determine whether it can be recommended for use in wetland restoration programs. Seedlings of Q. castaneifolia were subjected to three treatments: (1) control (C), (2) flooding for 60 days followed by a 42-day recovery period (F?+?R) and (3) continuous flooding for 102 days (F). Physiological performance, plant morphological changes and biomass accumulation were assessed. Results showed that, although net photosynthetic rates, stomatal conductance and transpiration decreased with prolonged flooding, when flood waters were removed, plants were able to recover their physiological activity (49–80% compared to controls). By contrast, when plants were continually flooded, their physiological activity decreased as well as the leaves experienced precocious senescence and wilting. Biomass responses paralleled physiological responses: leaf and root biomass were 42–49% higher under F?+?R treatment than under continuous flooding, and all plants under the F?+?R survived. Therefore, Q. castaneifolia appears as a promising species to be further studied when thinking re-vegetation of riverine areas and other temporarily flooded wetlands.     

Growth and physiological responses of Quercus brantii seedlings inoculated with Biscogniauxia mediterranea and Obolarina persica under drought stress

Charcoal canker of oak is a common disease in the western regions of Iran, which has widely spread due to climate change and increasing drought in recent years. Biscogniauxia mediterranea and Obolarina persica are known as two agents of oak charcoal canker in Zagros forests causing the dieback of oak trees. The effects of charcoal disease agent pathogens on the growth and physiological response of two‐year‐old seedlings of Quercus brantii were evaluated under drought stress in greenhouse over a period of nine months. Survival was 21.7% lower in seedlings inoculated with B. mediterranea subjected to drought stress compared with control treatment. The length of lesions on stems was 68% more under charcoal pathogens in drought stressed compared with the length of lesions caused by charcoal pathogens only. On the other hand, stem lesion length caused by B. mediterranea was 25% greater than those caused by O. persica. Some morphophysiological characteristics were affected by charcoal pathogens alone and/or in combination with drought. Diameter, height and biomass decreased the most in seedlings inoculated with charcoal pathogens under drought stress. Pathogenic agents alone and in combination with drought stress reduced photosynthetic rates, stomatal conductance, transpiration, the maximum Rubisco activity (V_cmax), maximum photochemical efficiency of photosystem II (F_v/F_m) and xylem water potential. In general, drought increased the aggressiveness of fungus and intensification of their destructive effects in Quercus brantii. Moreover, there was no significant difference between the effect of B. mediterranea and O. persica on the morphophysiological parameters studied.     

Applicability of support vector machines and adaptive neurofuzzy inference system for modeling potato crop evapotranspiration

Estimation of crop evapotranspiration (ET_C) for certain crops such as potato is very important for irrigation planning, irrigation scheduling and irrigation systems management. The primary focus of this study was to investigate the accuracy of the adaptive neurofuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and support vector machines (SVM) for potato ET_C estimation when lysimeter measurements or the complete weather data for applying the FAO method are not available. The estimates of the ANFIS and SVM models were compared with the empirical equations of Blaney–Criddle, Makkink, Turc, Priestley–Taylor, Hargreaves and Ritchie. The performances of the different SVM and ANFIS models were evaluated by comparing the corresponding values of root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE) and correlation coefficient (r). The drawn conclusions confirmed that the SVM and ANFIS models could provide more accurate ET_C estimates than the empirical equations. Overall, the minimum RMSE (0.042 mm/day) and MAE (0.031 mm/day) values and the maximum r value (0.98) were obtained using the SVM model with mean air temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, sunshine hours and wind speed as inputs.     

Comparative analysis of 31 reference evapotranspiration methods under humid conditions

Evaluation of simple reference evapotranspiration (ET_o) methods has received considerable attention in developing countries where the weather data needed to estimate ET_o by the Penman–Monteith FAO 56 (PMF-56) model are often incomplete and/or not available. In this study, eight pan evaporation-based, seven temperature-based, four radiation-based and ten mass transfer-based methods were evaluated against the PMF-56 model in the humid climate of Iran, and the best and worst methods were selected from each group. In addition, two radiation-based methods for estimating ET_o were derived using air temperature and solar radiation data based on the PMF-56 model as a reference. Among pan evaporation-based and temperature-based methods, the Snyder and Blaney–Criddle methods yielded the best ET_o estimates. The ET_o values obtained from the radiation-based equations developed here were better than those estimated by existing radiation-based methods. The Romanenko equation was the best model in estimating ET_o among the mass transfer-based methods. Cross-comparison of the 31 tested methods showed that the five best methods as compared with the PMF-56 model were: the two radiation-based equations developed here, the temperature-based Blaney–Criddle and Hargreves-M4 equations and the Snyder pan evaporation-based equation.     

Response of oriental beech (Fagus orientalis Lipsky) seedlings to canopy gap size

The response of nursery seedlings and wildings of oriental beech(Fagus orientalis Lipsky) to canopy gap size was studied ina climax beech forest in northern Iran with respect to seedlingsurvival, shoot growth and vitality. These parameters were followedfor 2 years after planting in gaps of 50, 200 and 600 m², aswell as in the open field. Foliage coloration was used as acriterion for vitality. The survival rate of nursery seedlingsand wildings dropped rapidly with increasing gap size from 84per cent in 50-m² canopy openings to     

Pharmacokinetics of levamisole after intramuscular and oral administrations to Caspian salmon (Salmo trutta caspius)

The pharmacokinetic parameters of levamisole were determined in the Caspian salmon after intramuscular (IM), oral by gavage, and oral by feed administrations. Eighty-one healthy fish in three different groups received levamisole at the dose of 25 mg/fish by each route. Blood samples were collected at time points of 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 12, 14, and 24 hr after administrations. Plasma levamisole concentrations were measured by a validated high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) assay and were analyzed using a noncompartmental approach. The mean terminal half-life was 4.56, 3.95, and 2.91 hr for IM, gavage and feed routes, respectively. The peak plasma concentration for IM, gavage, and feed routes of levamisole were 35.53, 4.63, and 8.36 µg/ml, respectively, at the time of 0.25 for IM, and 1 hr for gavage and feed. The relative bioavailability for gavage and feed routes was 54.80 and 69.30. The similar bioavailability for gavage and feed might be indicative of similar efficacy for these routes of administrations. Further studies are warranted to evaluate the absolute oral bioavailability and the effective dose in Caspian salmon.     

Trend analysis of reference evapotranspiration in the western half of Iran

Reference evapotranspiration (ET_o) is an important element of the hydrological cycle, and changes in ET_o are of great significance for agricultural water use planning, irrigation system design and management. In this study, annual, seasonal and monthly trends in the Penman-Monteith ET_o at 20 meteorological stations during 1966-2005 in the western half of Iran were examined using the Mann-Kendall test, the Sen's slope estimator and the linear regression. Annual analysis of the ET_o series indicated a positive trend in 70% of the stations according to the Mann-Kendall test and the Sen's slope estimator and in 75% of the stations according to the linear regression. The magnitude of significant positive trends in annual ET_o varied from (+)11.28 to (+)2.30 mm/year. On the seasonal scale, stronger increasing trends were identified in ET_o data in winter and summer compared with those in autumn and spring. Meanwhile, the highest numbers of stations with significant trends were found in the monthly ET_o series in February, while the lowest numbers of stations with significant trends were observed in November. Analysis of the impact of climatic variables on the significant increasing trend in ET_o showed that the increasing trend was mainly caused by a significant increase in air temperature during the study period.     

Antitrichomonal activity of Peganum harmala alkaloid extract against trichomoniasis in pigeon (Columba livia domestica)

1. This study was designed to evaluate the antitrichomonal effects of P. harmala alkaloid extract against T. gallinae, both in vitro and in vivo, as well as comparing it to that of metronidazole, conventional antitrichomonal medication and harmine and harmaline, the two alkaloids present in P. harmala.

2. T. gallinae were collected by the wet mount method from infected free-living pigeons. The in vitro assay was performed using multi-well plates containing test compounds in final concentrations of 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 50 or 100 μg/ml. The in vivo assay was done on 60 experimentally infected pigeons dosed with metronidazole at 50 mg/kg body weight (BW) or alkaloids at 25 mg/kg BW.

3. The 24 h minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of alkaloid extract was 15 µg/ml while that of metronidazole was 50 µg/ml. Harmine and harmaline revealed 24 h MIC of 30 and 100 µg/ml, respectively. Treatment of infected pigeons with alkaloids led to a full recovery after 3 d but with metronidazole total eradication of trophozoites was not achieved.

4. In conclusion, data of the present study suggested P. harmala is a potent natural anti-trichomonal agent, effective against T. gallinae.     

Estimation of daily pan evaporation using artificial neural network and multivariate non-linear regression

Measurement of evaporation (E) rate from various natural surfaces is known as the key element in any hydrological cycle and hydrometeorological studies. Due to the shortage of pan evaporation (E _P) data, the estimation of E _P for such studies seems necessary. The main aim of this paper was to estimate daily E _P using artificial neural network (ANN) and multivariate non-linear regression (MNLR) methods in semi-arid region of Iran. Five different ANN and MNLR models comprising various combinations of daily meteorological variables, that is, relative humidity (RH), air temperature (T), solar radiation (SR), wind speed (U) and precipitation (P) were developed to evaluate degree of effect of each of these variables on E _P. The comparison of models estimates showed that the ANN 5 model characterized by Delta-Bar-Delta learning algorithm and Sigmoid activation function which uses all input parameters (T, U, SR, RH, P) performed best in prediction of daily E _P. The sensitivity analysis revealed that the estimated E _P data are more sensitive to T and U, respectively. A comparison of the model performance between ANN and MNLR models indicated that ANN method presents the best estimates of daily E _P.