Response of climate-growth relationships and water use efficiency to thinning in a Pinus nigra afforestation

Thinning is the main forestry measure to increase tree growth by reducing stand tree density and competition for resources. A thinning experiment was established in 1993 on a 32-year-old Pinus nigra Arn. stand in central Spain. The response of growth, climate-growth relationships and intrinsic water use efficiency (WUEi) to a stand density reduction were compared between moderate thinned plots and a control plot by a combined analysis of basal area increments (BAI), and C and O stable isotope ratios (δ¹³C_c and δ¹⁸O_c). BAI in the control plot showed a decreasing trend that was avoided by thinning in the thinned plot. Thinning also partially buffered tree-ring response to climate and trees were less sensitive to precipitation although more sensitive to temperature. Δ¹³C_c in the thinned plot was not modified indicating that stomatal conductance (g) and photosynthetic capacity (A) did not change or change in the same direction. However, δ¹⁸O_c decreased in the control plot (unrelated to δ¹⁸O of precipitation) but not in the thinned plot, suggesting a relative increase of temperature and irradiance and/or a decrease of air humidity after reducing the density consistent with an increase in A, g and BAI. As WUEi did not increase in the thinned plot, faster growth in this plot was caused by higher abundance of resources per tree. The trend of WUEi in both plots indicated low-moderate CO₂-induced improvements. Thinning might be a useful adaptation measure against climate change in these plantations reducing their vulnerability to droughts. However, because WUEi was not affected, the positive growth response might be limited if droughts and warming continue and certain thresholds are exceeded.     

Enhancing Pinus pinea cone production by grafting in a non-native habitat

New Forests - Pinus pinea is an interesting species for its valued pine nuts. Despite the high demand for this nut, the species is mostly harvested from natural forests, because the time elapsed...     

Factors involved in alleviating water stress by partial crop removal in pear trees

We studied the relief of water stress associated with fruit thinning in pear (Pyrus communis L.) trees during drought to determine what mechanisms, other than stomatal adjustment, were involved. Combinations of control irrigation (equal to crop water use less effective rainfall) and deficit irrigation (equal to 20% of control irrigation), fruit load (unthinned and thinned to 40 fruits per tree) and root pruning (pruned and unpruned) treatments were applied to pear (cv. 'Conference') trees during Stage II of fruit development. Daily patterns of midday stem water potential (Psi(stem)) and leaf conductance to water vapor (g(l)) of deficit-irrigated trees differed after fruit thinning. In response to fruit thinning, gl progressively declined with water stress until 30 days after fruit thinning and then leveled off, whereas the effects of decreased fruit load on Psi(stem) peaked 30-40 days after fruit thinning and then tended to decline. Soil water depletion was significantly correlated with fruit load during drought. Our results indicate that stomatal adjustment and the resulting soil water conservation were the factors determining the Psi(stem) response to fruit thinning. However, these factors could not explain differences in daily patterns between g(l) and Psi(stem) after fruit thinning. In all cases, effects of root pruning treatments on Psi(stem) in deficit-irrigated trees were transitory (Psi(stem) recovered from root pruning in less than 30 days), but the recovery of Psi(stem) after root pruning was faster in trees with low fruit loads. This behavior is compatible with the concept that the water balance (reflected by Psi(stem) values) was better in trees with low fruit loads compared with unthinned trees, perhaps because more carbon was available for root growth. Thus, a root growth component is hypothesized as a mechanism to explain the bimodal Psi(stem) response to fruit thinning during drought.     

Antiproliferative activity of Citrus juices and HPLC evaluation of their flavonoid composition

The antiproliferative activity of fresh fruit juices extracted from Citrus sinensis (cv. Washington Navel and cv. Sanguinello), C. deliciosa cv. Avana, C. clementina cv. Nules, C. aurantium subsp. myrtifolia , was evaluated against K562 (human chronic myelogenous leukemia), HL-60 (human leukemia) and MCF-7 (human breast adenocarcinoma) cell lines. All the juices tested showed antiproliferative activity. Moreover, the pattern of the main flavanone compounds in the juices has been determined by HPLC analysis.     

Use of near infrared reflectance and transmittance coupled to robust calibration for the evaluation of nutritional value in naked oats

A rapid accurate and precise method for simultaneous determination of β-glucan and protein content in naked oat samples, based on the coupling of near-infrared spectroscopy and chemometrics, is presented. In particular, three different spectroscopic approaches [near infrared reflectance (NIR) and transmittance (NIT) on flour and NIT on whole grains] and various spectral pretreatments were considered. To account for the possibility of outlying samples, a robust version of the PLS algorithm (namely partial robust M-regression) was used. All the models resulted as accurate as the reference methods, reflectance spectroscopy being the technique providing the best outcomes. Variable reduction by inclusion of the most relevant predictors only (as evaluated by VIP scores) resulted in simpler and, in one case, more parsimonious models, without loss in accuracy.     

Plants as biofactories: physiological role of reactive oxygen species on the accumulation of phenolic antioxidants in carrot tissue under wounding and hyperoxia stress

Plants subjected to postharvest abiotic stresses synthesize secondary metabolites with health-promoting properties. Here, we report the potential use of carrots (Daucus carota) as biofactories of caffeoylquinic acids when subjected to wounding and hyperoxia stresses. Wounding stress induced an increase of ～287% in total phenolic content (PC) in carrots stored for 48 h at 20 °C. This increase was higher (～349%) in the wounded tissue treated with hyperoxia stress. To further understand the physiological role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) as a signaling molecule for the stress-induced accumulation of phenolics in carrots, the respiration rate as well as the enzymatic activities of NADPH oxidase, superoxide dismutase, ascorbate peroxidase, and catalase were evaluated. Likewise, shredded carrots were treated with diphenyleneiodonium chloride solution to block NADPH oxidase ROS productions, and the phenylalanine ammonia lyase activity and total PC were evaluated. Results demonstrated that ROS play a key role as a signaling molecule for the stress-induced accumulation of PC in carrots.     

Effects of past, present and future atmospheric CO2 concentrations on soil organic matter dynamics in a chaparral ecosystem

Owing to the continuously increasing concentration of atmospheric CO₂, it has become a priority to understand if soil organic matter (SOM) will behave as a sink or a source of CO₂ under future environmental changes. Although many studies have addressed this question, a clear understanding is still missing, particularly with respect to long-term responses. In this study, we quantified soil C stores and dynamics in relationship to soil aggregation and pool composition in a Californian chaparral ecosystem exposed for 6 years to a gradient of atmospheric CO₂ concentrations, ranging from pre-industrial levels 250 to 750 μl l⁻¹ CO₂. Fossil fuel-derived CO₂ depleted in ¹³C was used for the fumigation, thus providing a tracer of C input from the vegetation to the soil.Long-term CO₂ exposure invariably affected soil aggregation, with a significant decrease in the macroaggregate fraction at highest CO₂ levels relative to the other two size fractions (i.e. microaggregates and silt and clay). This soil structural change most likely reduced the stability and protection of SOM, and C content generally decreased in most fractions over the CO₂ treatments, and induced faster turnover of recently fixed C at high CO₂ levels. The strongest response was found in the C content of the microaggregates, which decreased significantly (P<0.05) with rising levels of CO₂. We conclude that increasing atmospheric CO₂ concentrations will decrease soil C in chaparral ecosystems, and that the microaggregate fraction is the most responsive to increasing concentrations of atmospheric CO₂.     

The measurements of acid detergent fibre in rapeseed by visible and near-infrared spectroscopy

Visible and near‐infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) calibrations for acid detergent fibre (ADF) in intact rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) were performed for two different sample volumes (10 ml, 500 seeds approximately; and 1 ml, 50 seeds approximately). The inclusion of brown and yellow‐seeded cultivars in this work has allowed the whole range of ADF currently described in the literature for this character to be covered. Chemometric techniques have been used for developing calibration equations for both procedures when measuring the two different seed sample volumes. On the basis of the coefficient of determination in the cross‐validation (R²cv) obtained for the 10 and 1 ml assays (0.80 and 0.73), and SECV/SEL ratios (2.30 and 2.57), respectively, both equations showed an accuracy sufficient for screening purposes in an ADF range from 6.80 to 13.46% dry wt, which is presented in this work.     

A genetic map of an interspecific diploid pseudo testcross population of coffee

Coffee is globally one of the most important export crops and is a prominent part of the economy in more than 50 countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia. In Colombia, it has been the leading export commodity for more than a century. However, genetic research on coffee has been rather sparse and mainly focused on the two major cultivated species, Coffea arabica L. and C. canephora P., leaving unexplored the genetic potential in other species. In this study, an interspecific mapping population consisting of 101 F₁ hybrid plants from a cross between the diploid species C. liberica and C. eugenioides was evaluated for genetic segregation at 618 molecular marker loci. Of these, 168 SSRs and two ESTs exhibited polymorphic patterns that allowed segregation analysis and genetic linkage estimations. A genetic map consisting of 146 co-dominant loci and 11 predicted linkage groups was constructed using the mapping software JoinMap 3.0. The conjoined maternal/paternal map length is 798.68 cM, has an average saturation density of 6.01 cM/interval, and covers an estimated 66–86 % of the diploid coffee genome. Approximately 24 % of loci had null alleles, and 23.5 % exhibited segregation distortion. Knowledge derived from this study has important applications for quantitative trait locus analysis and marker-assisted selection in Colombian coffee breeding programs.     

Perturbation of the EphA2-EphrinA1 System in Human Prostate Cancer Cells by Colonic (Poly)phenol Catabolites

The Eph tyrosine kinase receptors and their ephrin ligands play a central role in human cancer as their deregulated expression induces tumorigenesis with aggressive phenotypes. To evaluate their potential contribution to EphA2-ephrinA1 modulation, several colonic catabolites of dietary (poly)phenolics, known to be generated in vivo, were screened using an ELISA-based binding assay. Some of the catabolites inhibited the binding in a dose-dependent manner (IC(50) values from 0.26 to 43 μM). Functional studies on prostate adenocarcinoma cells revealed that pyrogallol and protocatechuic acid specifically antagonized ephrinA1-Fc-induced EphA2 phosphorylation at concentrations that were not cytotoxic. The active concentrations of pyrogallol appear to be close to what can be reached in vivo under physiological conditions. Finally, because of the roles played by the Eph-ephrin system not only in cancer development but also in neurodegeneration and diabetes, pyrogallol and protocatechuic acid are candidates for more detailed functional studies to elucidate their role in these pathophysiological processes.