Salicornia bigelovii Torr.: An Oilseed Halophyte for Seawater Irrigation

The terrestrial halophyte, Salicornia bigelovii Torr., was evaluated as an oilseed crop for direct seawater irrigation during 6 years of field trials in an extreme coastal desert environment. Yields of seed and biomass equated or exceeded freshwater oilseed crops such as soybean and sunflower. The seed contained 26 to 33 percent oil, 31 percent protein, and was low in fiber and ash (5 to 7 percent). The oil and meal were extracted by normal milling equipment, and the oil was high in linoleic acid (73 to 75 percent) and could replace soybean oil in chicken diets. The meal had antigrowth factors, attributed to saponins, but could replace soybean meal in chicken diets amended with the saponin antagonist, cholesterol. Salicornia bigelovii appears to be a potentially valuable new oilseed crop for subtropical coastal deserts.     

Microtomography of partially molten rocks: three-dimensional melt distribution in mantle peridotite

The permeability of the upper mantle controls melt segregation beneath spreading centers. Reconciling contradictory geochemical and geophysical observations at ocean ridges requires a better understanding of transport properties in partially molten rocks. Using x-ray synchrotron microtomography, we obtained three-dimensional data on melt distribution for mantle peridotite with various melt fractions. At melt fractions as low as 0.02, triple junctions along grain edges dominated the melt network; there was no evidence of an abrupt change in the fundamental character of melt extraction as melt fraction increased to 0.2. The porosity of the partially molten region beneath ocean ridges is therefore controlled by a balance between viscous compaction and melting rate, not by a change in melt topology.     

NEAR's flyby of 253 mathilde: images of a C asteroid

On 27 June 1997, the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft flew within 1212 kilometers of asteroid 253 Mathilde. Mathilde is an irregular, heavily cratered body measuring 66 kilometers by 48 kilometers by 46 kilometers. The asteroid's surface is dark (estimated albedo between 0.035 and 0.050) and similar in color to some CM carbonaceous chondrites. No albedo or color variations were detected. The volume derived from the images and the mass from Doppler tracking of the spacecraft yield a mean density of 1.3 +/- 0.2 grams per cubic centimeter, about half that of CM chondrites, indicating a porous interior structure.     

Oscillations and sparsening of odor representations in the mushroom body

In the insect olfactory system, oscillatory synchronization is functionally relevant and reflects the coherent activation of dynamic neural assemblies. We examined the role of such oscillatory synchronization in information transfer between networks in this system. The antennal lobe is the obligatory relay for olfactory afferent signals and generates oscillatory output. The mushroom body is responsible for formation and retrieval of olfactory and other memories. The format of odor representations differs significantly across these structures. Whereas representations are dense, dynamic, and seemingly redundant in the antennal lobe, they are sparse and carried by more selective neurons in the mushroom body. This transformation relies on a combination of oscillatory dynamics and intrinsic and circuit properties that act together to selectively filter and synthesize the output from the antennal lobe. These results provide direct support for the functional relevance of correlation codes and shed some light on the role of oscillatory synchronization in sensory networks.     

Jupiter's nightside airglow and aurora

Observations of Jupiter's nightside airglow (nightglow) and aurora obtained during the flyby of the New Horizons spacecraft show an unexpected lack of ultraviolet nightglow emissions, in contrast to the case during the Voyager flybys in 1979. The flux and average energy of precipitating electrons generally decrease with increasing local time across the nightside, consistent with a possible source region along the dusk flank of Jupiter's magnetosphere. Visible emissions associated with the interaction of Jupiter and its satellite Io extend to a surprisingly high altitude, indicating localized low-energy electron precipitation. These results indicate that the interaction between Jupiter's upper atmosphere and near-space environment is variable and poorly understood; extensive observations of the day side are no guide to what goes on at night.     

Spider Mite Detection and Canopy Component Mapping in Cotton Using Hyperspectral Imagery and Spectral Mixture Analysis

Spectral mixture analysis and hyperspectral remote sensing are analytical and hardware tools new to precision agriculture. They can allow detection and identification of various crop stresses and other plant and canopy characteristics through analysis of their spectral signatures. One stressor in cotton, the strawberry spider mite (Tetranychus turkestani U.N.), feeds on plants causing leaf puckering and reddish discoloration in early stages of infestation and leaf drop later. To determine the feasibility of detecting the damage caused by this pest at the field level, AVIRIS imagery was collected from USDA-ARS cotton research fields at Shafter, CA on 4 dates in 1999. Additionally, cotton plants and soil were imaged in situ in 10 nm increments from 450 to 1050 nm with a liquid-crystal tunable-filter camera system. Mite-damaged areas on leaves, healthy leaves, tilled shaded soil, and tilled sunlit soil were chosen as reference endmembers and used in a constrained linear spectral mixture analysis to unmix the AVIRIS data producing fractional abundance maps. The procedure successfully distinguished between adjacent mite-free and mite-infested cotton fields although shading due to sun angle differences between dates was a complicating factor. The resulting healthy plant, soil, mite-damaged, and shade fraction maps showed the distribution and relative abundance of these endmembers in the fields. These hardware and software technologies can identify the location, spatial extent, and severity of crop stresses for use in precision agriculture.     

Local selection and latitudinal variation in a marine predator-prey interaction

Although pairs of species often interact over broad geographic ranges, few studies have explored how interactions vary across these large spatial scales. Surveys along 1500 kilometers of the Pacific coast of North America documented marked variation in the frequency of predation by the snail Nucella canaliculata on the intertidal mussel Mytilus californianus. Laboratory rearing experiments suggest that regional differences in drilling behavior have a genetic basis, and mitochondrial sequence variation confirms that gene flow is low among these snail populations. Marine communities separated by hundreds of kilometers may have intrinsically different dynamics, with interactions shaped by restricted gene flow and spatially varying selection.     

Templating organic semiconductors via self-assembly of polymer colloids

A route for producing semiconducting polymer blends is demonstrated in which a doped pi-conjugated polymer is forced into a three-dimensionally continuous minor phase by the self-assembly of colloidal particles and block copolymers. The resulting cellular morphology can be viewed as a high-internal phase polymeric emulsion. Compared with traditional blending procedures, this process reduces the percolation threshold for electrical conductivity by a factor of 10, increases the conductivity by several orders of magnitude, and simultaneously improves thermal stability. Following this route, new applications can be envisaged for semiconducting polymer blends that require only minimal concentrations of doped pi-conjugated polymer.     

Effects of the herbicide glyphosate on nitrification in four soils from Atlantic Canada

The herbicide glyphosate, supplied as Roundup (Monsanto Canada Inc.), was tested for effects on nitrification in four soils from Atlantic Canada. These included a sandy loam (pH 6.8), two silt loam (pH 6.4 and 5.8) agricultural soils and a clay loam forest soil (pH 3.5). Glyphosate was tested at normal field exposure rates (FR) and levels up to 200 times higher. FR values ranged from 19.83 to 29.26 ppm (jig glyphosate g^?1 soil). Glyphosate had no deleterious effects on nitrification in any soil when tested at FR concentrations. In the sandy loam soil nitrification was significantly stimulated at a glyphosate level 50 times higher than FR. With this soil and one of the silt loam soils (pH 6.4) glyphosate levels of 100 times FR and higher were required for a significant inhibition of nitrification. With the other silt loam soil (pH 5.8) glyphosate significantly inhibited nitrification at concentrations 10 times FR and higher. Nitrification in the acidic forest soil was very low and accurate toxicity data could not be obtained. The EC₅₀ of glyphosate towards nitrification in soil ranged from 1435 to 2920 ppm, which corresponds to exposure levels from 67 to 150 times higher than recommended field application rates. The use of glyphosate in agriculture and forestry should have no toxic effects on nitrification in soil.