Investigation of natural environment by space means. Geobotany, Geomorphology, soil sciences, agricultural lands, landscape study

Reports given by Soviet specialists at a meeting of Socialist countries on remote sensing of the earth using aerospace methods are presented

Future of Sustainable Agriculture in Saline Environments

Food production on present and future saline soils deserves the world’s attention particularly because food security is a pressing issue, millions of hectares of degraded soils are available worldwide, freshwater is becoming increasingly scarce, and the global sea-level rise threatens food production in fertile coastal lowlands. Future of Sustainable Agriculture in Saline Environments aims to showcase the global potential of saline agriculture. The book covers the essential topics, such as policy and awareness, soil management, future crops, and genetic developments, all supplemented by case studies that show how this knowledge has been applied. It offers an overview of current research themes and practical cases focused on enhancing food production on saline lands. FEATURES Describes the critical role of the revitalization of salt-degraded lands in achieving sustainability in agriculture on a global scale Discusses practical solutions toward using drylands and delta areas threatened by salinity for sustainable food production Presents strategies for adaptation to climate change and sea-level rise through food production under saline conditions Addresses the diverse aspects of crop salt tolerance and microbiological associations Highlights the complex problem of salinity and waterlogging and safer management of poor-quality water, supplemented by case studies A PDF version of this book is available for free in Open Access at www.taylorfrancis.com. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license

Bryophyte Ecology

Bryophyte Ecology is an ebook comprised of 5 volumes written by Janice Glime, Professor Emerita of Biological Sciences at Michigan Technological University. Chapter coauthors include Irene Bisang, S. Robbert Gradstein, J. Lissner, W. J. Boelema, and D. H. Wagner. To download smaller sections of Bryophyte Ecology, visit: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/bryophyte-ecology/https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/oabooks/1003/thumbnail.jp

The vegetation of Omusati and Oshana regions, central-northern Namibia

Central-northern Namibia is home to an approximate 43% of the country’s population, a large proportion of which still depends directly on natural resources for their livelihoods. The main land use in this area is agro-silvo-pastoralism i.e. a combination of subsistence farming and silvi-culture. The few phytosociological and biodiversity data available in Namibia are not substantial to motivate environmental management and sustainable utilization of the country’s natural wealth. The Vegetation Survey Project of Namibia coupled with the BIOTA southern Africa Project therefore share a common goal of re-classifying Namibian vegetation by building on the Preliminary Vegetation Map of Namibia of 1971 and the Homogenous Framing Areas Report of 1979. The vegetation of Omusati and Oshana regions which are situated in the Mopanne Savanna in central-northern Namibia was classified and described by subjecting 415 relevés to multivariate analysis i.e. classification and ordination. The geographical distribution of these community types was established by supervised classification of satellite data of the study area. Data collected in this study will be used for hypothesis generation of further ecological investigations while the map can be used for planning and conservation of vegetation resources in the area. CopyrightDissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2012.Plant Scienceunrestricte

Vegetation Index and Dynamics

The book contemplates different ways of approaching the study of vegetation as well as the type of indices to be used. However, all the works pursue the same objective: to know and interpret nature from different points of view, either through knowledge of nature in situ or the use of technology and mapping using satellite images. Chapters analyze the ecological parameters that affect vegetation, the species that make up plant communities, and the influence of humans on vegetation

Summaries of the Fifth Annual JPL Airborne Earth Science Workshop. Volume 1: AVIRIS Workshop

This publication is the first of three containing summaries for the Fifth Annual JPL Airborne Earth Science Workshop, held in Pasadena, California, on January 23-26, 1995. The main workshop is divided into three smaller workshops as follows: (1) The Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) workshop, on January 23-24. The summaries for this workshop appear in this volume; (2) The Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR) workshop, on January 25-26. The summaries for this workshop appear in Volume 3; and (3) The Thermal Infrared Multispectral Scanner (TIMS) workshop, on January 26. The summaries for this workshop appear in Volume 2

Implications of leaf anatomy and stomatal responses in the Clusia genus for the evolution of Crassulacean acid metabolism

PhD ThesisThe tropical genus Clusia which contains species with C3, Crassulacean acid metabolism and C3/CAM properties is an interesting model to dissect anatomical, physiological and molecular traits that underpin the evolution of CAM photosynthesis. About 7 % of higher plants perform CAM, a specialised photosynthetic pathway, characterized by CO2 uptake during the night mediated via the enzyme phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) and keeping stomata shut for much of the day. CAM confers high water use efficiency (WUE) and has long been considered an adaptation to drought stress and high irradiance. In some species like Clusia CAM facilitates remarkable photosynthetic plasticity in dealing with changing environments. Thus, CAM plants are important and challenging model organisms for investigating plant responses to global climate change and for examining the anatomical and physiological traits that underpin enhanced water use efficiency. In this thesis strong relationships were found between the magnitude of CAM photosynthesis in eight species of Clusia (C. hilariana, C. alata, C. rosea, C. lanceolata, C. aripoensis, C. grandiflora, C. tocuchensis and C. multiflora) and six leaf anatomical traits (stomatal size, stomatal density, % intercellular air space, length of mesophyll exposed to air space, cell size and specific leaf area) . These relationships point to leaf anatomical features as important in the evolution of CAM, and also have implications for the behaviour of stomata and their response to light. It was found that CAM species of Clusia have lower densities of larger stomata compared with C3 species of Clusia. The CAM species of Clusia still maintain a high WUE and it was hypothesised that this was a consequence of robust circadian control of stomatal conductance which was maintained under different light regimes. To examine the response of CAM stomata to contrasting light regimes and to test if circadian oscillations in stomatal conductance are disrupted under different wavelengths of light, gas exchange measurements were recorded during 48 hours under constant light regimes (either white light, blue light, red light or darkness) for C. rosea a constitutive CAM plant, and C. multiflora, a constitutive C3 plant. It was found that the species responded differently to variation in light regimes and the response of stomata to blue light in the CAM Clusia had not been lost, as proposed by previous workers. The larger stomata of C. rosea responded faster to changes in light intensity during the photoperiod compared with those of C. multiflora, but this did not happen during the night. It was hypothesised that the kinetic responses of the CAM stomata might be important for optimising carbon gain and reducing water loss under changing environmental conditions at the start and end of the day.. Furthermore, circadian control of stomatal conductance was found to be mediated by both photoreceptors and metabolism, including photosynthesis and carbohydrate metabolism in CAM and C3 Clusia plants. A molecular approach was taken to probe the mechanisms underpinning the contrasting responses to light. The differential transcript abundance, of photoreceptors involved in stomatal opening (phototropin 1 and phototropin 2) and circadian regulation (cryptochrome 2 and phytochrome A) was examined for C. rosea and C. multiflora under different constant light regimes using semi-quantitative reverse transcription- PCR and Real Time PCR. Diel expression patterns of phototropins were found to differ between the C3 and CAM species in terms of transcript abundance, the level of control exerted by circadian clock over the transcripts and the response of transcripts to different light regimes. It was concluded that stomatal responses to light in Clusia species must be mediated by a coordinated labour of different photoreceptors to exert control over water loss and CO2 assimilation. Further work is required to assess the expression and regulation of photoreceptors at the stomatal guard cell level. Having more knowledge regarding the function of stomata in CAM plants and their implications for WUE should help inform efforts for improving the water use of crop species in the light of environmental challenges such as desertification and global warming.Colfuturo: NUIPS: The School of Biology of Newcastle University

Spectral detection of stress-related pigments in salt-lake succulent halophytic shrubs

The spectral detection of vegetation pigment concentrations has a high potential value, but it is still underdeveloped, especially for pigments other than chlorophylls. In this study, the seasonal pigment dynamics of two Tecticornia species (samphires; halophytic shrubs) from north-western Australia were correlated with spectral indices that best document the pigment changes over time. Pigment dynamics were assessed by analysing betacyanin, chlorophyll and carotenoid concentrations at plant level and by measuring reflectance at contrasting seasonal dates. Plant reflectance was used to define a new reflectance index that was most sensitive to the seasonal shifts in Tecticornia pigment concentrations. The two Tecticornia species turned from green to red-pinkish for the period March–August 2012 when betacyanins increased almost nine times in both species. Chlorophyll levels showed the opposite pattern to that of betacyanins, whereas carotenoid levels were relatively stable. Normalised difference indices correlated well with betacyanin (r = 0.805, using bands at 600 and 620 nm) and chlorophyll (r = 0.809, using bands at 737 and 726 nm). Using knowledge of chlorophyll concentrations slightly improved the ability of the spectral index to predict betacyanin concentration (r = 0.822 at bands 606 and 620 nm, in the case of chemically determined chlorophyll, r = 0.809 when using remotely sensed chlorophyll). Our results suggest that this new spectral index can reliably detect changes in betacyanin concentrations in vegetation, with potential applications in ecological studies and environmental impact monitoring.Fil: Marchesini, Victoria Angela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Luis. Instituto de Matemática Aplicada de San Luis ; Argentina. University of Western Australia; AustraliaFil: Guerschman, Juan P.. Csiro Land and Water; AustraliaFil: Schweiggert, Ralf M.. Universidad de Hohenheim; AlemaniaFil: Colmer, Timothy D.. University of Western Australia; AustraliaFil: Veneklaas, Erik J.. University of Western Australia; Australi