Macronutrient deficiency and anatomic modifications in crambe leaves

Abstract

This study had the objective of assessing growth, deficiency symptoms and leaf anatomy of crambe plants submitted to macronutrient availability. The experimental design was the complete randomized with four replications. The first treatment consisted of cultivating crambe plants in a nutrient solution completed with N, P, K, Ca, Mg, and S. Using the diagnosis by subtraction, the other treatments consisted of the same solution with individual omission of each nutrient, totaling seven treatments. Supplement of different solutions took place two weeks after emergence. One week forward, visual symptoms of deficiency started to be evaluated. By the end of the experiment, the number of leaves, number of branches, shoot dry matter and leaf anatomic parameters were evaluated. Nutrient deficiency limited shoot dry matter in the following order: N?>?Ca?>?P>Mg?>?S?>?K. Subtracting Ca from the solution was most limiting to crambe growth once plants did not even reach reproductive stages. Individual subtractions of each macronutrient anatomically altered crambe leaves, especially omitting Ca, K, and S, which reduced tissue thickness.     

Performance and water requirement of young olives (Olea europaea L.) in the harsh environment of Kuwait

In the harsh environmental conditions of Kuwait, plants are frequently exposed to high temperatures, low relative humidity and drought. Because water resources available for agriculture are limited, an efficient irrigation strategy is vital for sustainable olive production. In view of these facts, a study to determine the behavior and water requirement of young olive plants under Kuwait's environmental conditions was carried out. The investigation included five cultivars (cvs. Arbequina, Barnea, Coratina, Koroneiki and UC13A6) and three levels of irrigation (50, 75 and 100% of ETc) with brackish water (ECe 5.0 dS m^?1). One-year-old grafted plants were used in this study. With the exception of UC13A6, the cultivars showed good adaptation to the harsh weather conditions in Kuwait and to brackish water irrigation during the first 18 months after the beginning of the irrigation treatments. Indeed, they showed good height and shoot growth, with cultivars Barnea, Arbequina and Coratina showing the highest values. Cultivar Barnea was the most vigorous variety under Kuwait's environmental conditions. Vegetative growth in these varieties was not significantly reduced in the 50% ETc treatment. This indicates huge opportunities to improve the water-use-efficiency through further investigations aimed at optimizing the amount of water supplied with irrigation.     

Songs for our soils. How soil themes have been represented in popular song

The soil–culture relationship has been investigated from various points of view. Surprisingly, however, there is a marked absence of papers investigating the way such a fragile resource has been represented in popular song. Many lyrics disclose how such a resource is lived, perceived, represented, and objectified in everyday human life by ordinary people. This paper observes that many of the greatest songwriters and interpreters on the international scene, from all musical genres, have dealt with soil, often from innovative and audacious perspectives. From the prosaic metaphor of the life cycle or as a medium for crops, the soil resource has also been cast as a means of pain, sacrifice, or even redemption. Sometimes seen as a secret world, a helpless creature, treated with a visionary or yet psychedelic approach, the soil has been represented in myriad ways. During the1970s, several protest songs, which had the ability to raise awareness and mobilize millions of people in favor of the environmentalists cause, were based on ideological positions closely connected to soil issues, such as soil sealing and erosion. These (soil) songs are now considered the first environmentalist songs in the history of music. As soil scientists, we have often serious problems in communicating soil issues for a global audience, and, consequently, the worldwide political agenda often shows a dramatic lack of interest in such concerns. It is perhaps surprising that popular songs have still not become more common methods for sharing, educating, and sensitizing ordinary people, students, and scholars from every field of study, about soil concerns. Without trying to claim it as some sort of panacea, popular song (as already understood by ecologists and climatologists) can represent a powerful means of increasing public visibility and awareness about soil resource.     

Iron absorption,localization, and biomineralization of Cynodon dactylon,a perennial grass from the Río Tinto basin (SW Iberian Peninsula)

Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers. is a perennial rhizomatous grass (Poaceae), grown for cattle nutrition on the riverbanks of Río Tinto (Southwest Iberian Peninsula, Spain), a highly acidic area with high concentrations of iron (Fe) and other metals. This study focuses on the absorption, distribution, and accumulation of Fe in the root, rhizome, and leaves of C. dactylon under controlled conditions. Plants collected from Río Tinto were grown in a Hoagland solution containing 500 mg kg^–1 of ferrous Fe. Samples were collected up to 2 months after exposure and analyzed for total Fe concentration using inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP‐MS) and for Fe distribution and bioformations by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with an energy‐dispersive x‐ray analyzer (EDX). The results show high concentrations of Fe in all plant organs, with fast Fe translocation from roots to leaves. Iron bioformations composed mainly of Fe, S, and K were detected in all plant organs and were especially apparent in roots and leaves. These results differ from those reported for another species of Poaceae, Imperata cylindrica, which grows under the same environmental conditions, suggesting the existence of different resistance strategies between species of the same family.     

Soil attributes and leaf nitrogen estimating sugar cane quality parameters: Brix, pol and fibre

The area of sugar cane production in Brazil has substantially increased in the last few years due to the high demand for ethanol. It is estimated that the actual area, which is approximately 8 Mha, will increase to as much as 15 Mha in the next 10 years. In addition to enlarging the boundaries and installing new industrial units, sugar cane expansion demands better use of production areas and improvement of both yield and quality, combined with a reduction of production costs. Thus, models that can describe the behaviour of sugar cane quality parameters could be important in understanding the effects of soil and plant attributes on these parameters. The objective of this work was to fit mathematical models to the sugar cane Brix, pol and fibre parameters using physical soil attributes, chemical soil attributes and leaf nitrogen as predictors from the previous year. This work was carried out in an area of 10 ha located in Araras, SP, Brazil, from November 2008 until July 2011 in the first (plant cane), second (first ratoon) and third (second ratoon) cycles of the crop. The chemical soil attributes analysed were the macronutrients and micronutrients, and the soil physical attribute analysed was the soil texture. The variables used in the models were chosen using principal component analysis (PCA), and the fit of the models was made as the mean of multiple regressions. The results were compared using kriging to map the Brix, pol and fibre with the true and estimated values. The Brix, pol and fibre models presented R ² values of 0.17, 0.06 and 0.18, respectively, for the first ratoon of the crop and 0.23, 0.19 and 0.52, respectively, for the second ratoon. These results allowed the estimation of Brix, pol and fibre with estimation errors less than 1 % for the first and second ratoons. The PCA approach identified soil organic matter, phosphorus and potassium as the soil attributes that had the higher variance of the dataset during the years studied.     

Effect of different lysis treatments on the characteristics of yeast derivatives for winemaking

The effects of three preparation techniques on the oenological properties of a yeast autolysate were investigated: enzymatic autolysis, thermolysis, and the combination of a slow freezing-defrosting and mechanical disruption were carried out on a commercial formulation of active dry yeasts (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). The powders obtained by freeze drying, were characterized: volatile compounds were analyzed by SPME-GC with mass spectrometric (MS) and olfactometric detection (O); the release of colloids in winelike solution was studied by SDS-PAGE and size exclusion chromatography (SEC). Finally, the effects of the powders addition on the aroma composition of a white wine were investigated by SPME-GC-MS, SPME-GC-O, and sensory evaluation. The products obtained were quite different from each other. In particular, enzymatic autolysis led to higher contents of nonglycosilated soluble proteins in the powders and determined a higher retention of wine aroma compounds. On the contrary, thermal autolysate was richer in glycoproteins, and it was able to increase the wine aroma intensity; nevertheless, in the wines treated with such preparation, a slight yeastlike olfactory note was perceived.     

Illegal trade of the guitarfish Rhinobatos horkelii on the coasts of central and southern Brazil: genetic identification to aid conservation

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Reduction of Hexavalent Chromium in Soil and Ground Water Using Zero-Valent Iron Under Batch and Semi-Batch Conditions

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Characterization of wild plum (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Ximenia americana</Emphasis> L. var. <Emphasis Type="Italic">americana</Emphasis>; Olacaceae) fruit growing at Tepexi de Rodríguez,Puebla, Mexico

As a country, Mexico presents an especially wide range of fruit germplasm diversity. Tepexi de Rodríguez, Puebla, Mexico, belongs to The Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley, which is an arid zone recognized to have a flora diversity. In that place, wild plum (Ximenia americana L. var. americana; Olacaceae), locally named “tihuixocote” grows mainly in backyards, the fruit of this species is appreciated by native people due to its taste, which is reported to be a mixture between sweet and sour. Fruit from 15 trees were characterized by measuring bio-physical and bio-chemical parameters, including weight, diameter (equatorial and polar), relationship equatorial/polar diameters, total sugar, soluble solid content and phenolic compounds. The results of this study indicate variability for these various wild plum fruit characteristics among trees growing in a reduced territorial space.