Modeling the invasive emerald ash borer risk of spread using a spatially explicit cellular model

The emerald ash borer (EAB, Agrilus planipennis) is decimating native ashes (Fraxinus sp.) throughout midwestern North America, killing millions of trees over the years. With plenty of ash available throughout the continent, the spread of this destructive insect is likely to continue. We estimate that the insect has been moving along a “front” at about 20 km/year since about 1998, but more alarming is its long-range dispersal into new locations facilitated by human activities. We describe a spatially explicit cell-based model used to calculate risk of spread in Ohio, by combining the insect’s flight and short-range dispersal (“insect flight”) with human-facilitated, long-range dispersal (“insect ride”). This hybrid model requires estimates of EAB abundance, ash abundance, major roads and traffic density, campground size and usage, distance from the core infested zone, wood products industry size and type of wood usage, and human population density. With the “insect flight” model, probability of movement is dependent on EAB abundance in the source cells, the quantity of ash in the target cells, and the distances between them. With the “insect-ride” model, we modify the value related to ash abundance based on factors related to potential human-assisted movements of EAB-infested ash wood or just hitchhiking insects. We attempt to show the advantage of our model compared to statistical approaches and to justify its practical value to field managers working with imperfect knowledge. We stress the importance of the road network in distributing insects to new geographically dispersed sites in Ohio, where 84% were within 1 km of a major highway.     

Balanced and integrated nutrient management for enhancedand economic food production: case study from rainfed semi-arid tropics in India

Soil degradation in the semi-arid tropics (SAT) is mainly responsible for low crop and water productivity. In Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan states in India, the soil analyses of farmers’ fields revealed widespread deficiencies of S (9–96%), B (17–100%) and Zn (22–97%) along with that of P (25–92%). Soil organic C was deficient in 7–84% fields indicating specifically N deficiencies and poor soil health in general. During on-farm evaluations in rainy seasons 2010 and 2011, the soil test based addition of deficient nutrient fertilizers as balanced nutrition (BN) increased crop yields by 6–40% (benefit to cost ratios of 0.81–4.28) through enhanced rainwater use efficiency. The integrated nutrient management (INM), however, decreased the use of chemical fertilizers in BN by up to 50% through on-farm produced vermicompost and recorded yields at par or more than BN with far better benefit to cost ratios (2.26–10.2). Soybean grain S and Zn contents improved with INM. Applied S, B, Zn and vermicompost showed residual benefits as increased crop yields for succeeding three seasons. Hence, results showed INM/BN was economically beneficial for producing more food, while leading to resilience building of SAT production systems.     

Folklore medicinal plants of North Andaman Islands, India

The rural folk of North Andaman, India use the traditional medicine for their primary health care. Folklore medicinal uses of 72 interesting medicinal plant species along with botanical name, local name, family, habit, part used, disease for which the drug is administrated, mode of administration are presented. These 72 plant species which provide the crude drugs pertain to 67 genera and 43 families of Magnoliophyta from tropical rainforests. These plants used to cure 40 ailments. Most remedies were taken orally, accounting for 76% of medicinal use. Most of the remedies were reported to have been from trees (55.6%) and herb (22.2%) species. The most widely sought after plant parts in the preparation of remedies in the areas are the stem bark (33.8%) and root (23.9%).     

Within-plant distribution of an invasive mealybug,Phenacoccus solenopsis,and associated losses in cotton

The cotton mealybug Phenacoccus solenopsis Tinsley (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), an invasive pest species, has appeared on a large scale on cotton in India since 2006. Its distribution within the plant, and associated yield losses in cotton, were studied over 2 years. Distribution of P. solenopsis was observed within the cotton plant from vegetative to boll formation stage. In the vegetative and square formation stages, the highest mealybug population was recorded on the upper portion of the stem, followed by the middle leaves of the plant. In the boll formation stage, there was no significant difference in distribution of the insect among plant parts. Losses in cotton due to the mealybug varied between 14.9% at Grade 1 and 53.6% at Grade 4, on a 0 to 4 severity index, with a mean reduction of 35% and 32%, during 2008 and 2009, respectively. There was a significant relationship between severity of infestation and decrease in seed cotton yield. The information generated from this study will help in the early detection of mealybug infestation and estimation of yield losses corresponding to the severity grade of the damage.     

Development and utilization of novel SSRs in foxtail millet [Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauv.]

Although the foxtail millet [Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauv.] is recently regarded as a model crop for studying functional genomics of biofuel grasses, its genetic improvement to some extent was limited due to the non‐availability of molecular markers, particularly the microsatellite markers and the saturated genetic linkage map. Considering this, we attempted to generate a significant number of microsatellite markers in cultivar ‘Prasad’. Two hundred and fifty‐six clones were sequenced to generate 41.82‐kb high‐quality sequences retrieved from genomic library enriched with dinucleotide repeat motifs. Microsatellites were identified in 194 (76%) of the 256 positive clones, and 64 primer pairs (pp) were successfully designed from 95 (49%) unique SSR‐containing clones. The 67.4% primer designing ability, 100% PCR amplification efficiency and 45.3% polymorphic potential in the parents of F₂ mapping population established the efficacy of genomic microsatellites. All the 64 microsatellite markers displayed high level of cross‐species amplification (~67%) in 10 millets and non‐millets species. These experimental findings suggest the utility and efficacy of SSRs in diverse genotyping applications, resolving QTLs, phylogenetic relationships and transferability in several important grass species.     

Molecular breeding technologies and strategies for rust resistance in wheat (Triticum aestivum) for sustained food security

Wheat is an important cereal food crop providing key nutrients to humankind. Rusts are the most destructive pathogens of cereal crops, with the exception of rice, across the world and resistant cultivars have been widely employed to reduce the yield losses caused by them. The modern intensive monoculture of cultivars and changing climatic conditions has created congenial conditions for the emergence of new virulent races such as Ug99, which is a great concern for world food security. Conventional breeding efforts have not been effective in quickly developing new varieties with durable and broad‐spectrum resistance against the rapidly evolving rust pathogen races. However, in the last two decades, biotechnological methods such as marker‐assisted selection (MAS) and transgenic technology have provided novel strategies for enhancing resistance levels and durability in crop plants in a short span of time. Nevertheless, broad application of transgenics in agriculture is hindered by biosafety apprehensions. In recent years, improved versions of biotechnological breeding methods such as genomic selection, genome editing technologies, cisgenesis and intragenesis, RNA‐dependent DNA methylation (RdDM), agroinfiltration and reverse breeding are gaining popularity. These technologies provide a tremendous capability to manipulate crop plants more precisely than before and accelerate crop improvement efforts for sustained food production as well as overcoming safety concerns associated with food crops.     

Breeding distribution and maternal genetic lineages in Lulu,a dwarf cattle population in Nepal

Lulu is a dwarf cattle population bred in the Mustang district of western and central Nepal. This area is located around the habitat boundary between Bos taurus and Bos indicus. The peculiarities of Lulu are their small size (weight range in the adult female: 68–153 kg) and rearing in high mountain areas at 2800 m to 4000 m in altitude. There were 5770 head of Lulu cattle in the Mustang district in 1998, 4333 females and 1437 males. The morphological appearance of Lulu is Bos taurus. However, one of the five Lulu studied in Kagbeni, Mustang had a Bos indicus mitochondrial DNA type based on the D‐loop sequence, while the other four were Bos taurus. It is suggested that there are hybrids of Lulu with Bos indicus maternal lineage in a mostly taurine‐breed genetic background. Steps must be taken to preserve the unique Lulu.     

Performance of agency-managed and farmer-managed irrigation systems: A comparative case study at Chitwan, Nepal

Management reforms are considered one of the best alternatives in increasing efficiency of the irrigation systems. Transfer of day-to-day operation and maintenance to farmers is not a new concept. However due to lags, even now it is a hot issue in developing countries and Nepal is not an exception. In this context of growing argument about the transfer of management of public irrigation systems to the Water Users' Group, this paper examines the comparative performance of farmer-managed and agency-managed irrigation systems. Khageri Irrigation System in the Chitwan district of Nepal was taken as the study site where complete management transfer has been done in 1996. The situations before and after complete transfer were compared. Intensive case studies of the selected farmers showed that equity in distribution of water and leakage had significantly improved after management transfer. Logit analysis revealed that age and education level of the household head, distance from main canal, leakage of the canal and equity in distribution are significantly related to the satisfaction level of the beneficiary farmers from FMIS compared to AMIS. However, landholding size of the respondent farmer has no significant effect. Similarly results from t-test revealed that rice productivity and overall profits from agriculture has also increased significantly due to irrigation management transfer.     

Thresholds,sensitive stages and genetic variability of finger millet to high temperature stress

Finger millet [Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.] is an important coarse cereal crop grown in the arid and semi‐arid regions and often experiences high temperature (HT) stress. The objectives of this research were (i) to quantify effects of season‐long HT stress on physiological and yield traits, (ii) to identify the developmental stages most sensitive to HT stress and (iii) to quantify the genetic variability for HT stress tolerance in finger millet. Research was conducted in controlled environment conditions. HT stress decreased the chlorophyll index, photosystem II activity, grain yield and harvest index. Maximum decrease in number of seeds per panicle and grain yield per plant was observed when stress was imposed during booting, panicle emergence or flowering stages. Maximum genotypic variation was explained by panicle width and number of seeds per panicle at optimum temperature (OT) and grain yield per plant at HT and number of seeds at HT. Based on the stress response and grain yield, tolerant or susceptible genotypes were identified. Finger millet is sensitive to HT stress during reproductive stages, and there was genotypic variability among the finger millet genotypes for number of seeds per panicle and grain yield under HT, which can be exploited to enhance stress tolerance.     

A Gis-derived integrated moisture index to predict forest composition and productivity of Ohio forests (U.S.A.)

A geographic information system (GIS) approach was used in conjunction with forest-plot data to develop an integrated moisture index (IMI), which was then used to predict forest productivity (site index) and species composition for forests in Ohio. In this region, typical of eastern hardwoods across the Midwest and southern Appalachians, topographic aspect and position (rather than elevation) change drastically at the fine scale and strongly influence many ecological functions. Elevational contours, soil series mapping units, and plot locations were digitized for the Vinton Furnace Experimental Forest in southeastern Ohio and gridded to 7.5-m cells for GIS modeling. Several landscape features (a slope-aspect shading index, cumulative flow of water downslope, curvature of the landscape, and water-holding capacity of the soil) were used to create the IMI, which was then statistically analyzed with site-index values and composition data for plots. On the basis of IMI values for forest land harvested in the past 30 years, we estimated oak site index and the percentage composition of two major species groups in the region: oak (Quercus spp.), and yellow poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) plus black cherry (Prunus serotina). The derived statistical relationships were then applied in the GIS to create maps of site index and composition, and verified with independent data. The maps show the oaks will dominate on dry, ridge top positions (i.e., low site index), while the yellow poplar and black cherry will predominate on mesic sites. Digital elevation models with coarser resolution (1:24K, 1:100K, 1:250K) also were tested in the same manner. We had generally good success for 1:24K, moderate success for 1:100K, but no success for 1:250K data. This simple and portable approach has the advantage of using readily available GIS information which is time-invariant and requires no fieldwork. The IMI can be used to better manage forest resources where moisture is limiting and to predict how the resource will change under various forms of ecosystem management.