Effects of sand burial and overstory tree age on seedling establishment in coastal Pinus thunbergii forests in the northern Shandong Peninsula, China

Coastal Pinus thunbergii (Japanese black pine) forests in the northern Shandong Peninsula of China recently experienced widespread natural regeneration failure. This study identifies critical factors that affect natural regeneration of P. thunbergii. Seeds from trees of various ages (13-32 years) were used to investigate the effects of age and burial depth in sand on germination and seedling establishment. Results show that seed density in 2-5 cm soil decreased with increased distance from the shoreline. Sand burial decreased seed germination but did not affect the relative growth rate of seedlings at depths from 0.5 to 3 cm. Germination, leaf mass ratio, and relative growth rates were higher with seedlings originating from older trees, all of which enhanced seedling resistance to sand burial. Tree age and seed burial were found to be determining factors for natural regeneration of the coastal P. thunbergii forest. Silvicultural treatments that promote quality of seed sources and mitigation of sand burial can be used in the future to improve the regeneration of these coastal forests

New Traits of Agriculture/Food Quality Interface

There is a close link between food and territory. The current challenges are located in precision agriculture and food metrology from the perspective of monitoring and improving food quality, and addressing the promotion of diversity of agroecosystems and diets. Research studies describing factors affecting food quality—such as agronomic conditions, post-harvest elicitors, cultivar selection, harvest date, or environmental influences—are welcome. Sustainable environmental and innovative practices should be promoted. Advanced techniques, such as mass spectrometry, infrared, and Raman spectroscopy in the monitoring and control of foodstuffs to model the agrofood system should be considered. Innovative green technologies should be taken into account. Targeting food approaches should be promoted. Chemometrics applications are welcome. This issue promotes highly interdisciplinary studies, including disciplines from agriculture and biology, chemistry, and nutrition. All types of articles, such as original research, opinions, and reviews, are welcome

Sustainable Economic Development

This book is a pivotal publication that addresses the contemporary challenges of globalization and elaborate policy responses to environmental pollution, climate change, economic disruptions, poverty, hunger, and other threats to sustainable economic development. Many parts of the world, territories, and societies are now changing at an unprecedented pace in ways that fundamentally affect the markets, people, the environment, and biodiversity. Such changes are primarily driven by rapid social and economic developments, economic disparities between countries, the internationalization of production and value chains, and industrialization. Increasingly frequently, business interests are interfering with sustainable development goals. The issue is how to converge the economic benefits with the urgent need for establishing resilient production chains, social networks, sustainably-operating markets, and environmental protection. This publication highlights the need for the balanced economic development and comprehensive coverage of many sustainability–business areas. Economic, production, financial, and social factors of sustainability are discussed by over 90 contributors representing 40 universities and research institutions from seven countries. Their findings are translated into workable approaches and policies for the benefit of the global economy, people, and the environment

Fungi and Fungal Metabolites for the Improvement of Human and Animal Nutrition and Health

The purpose of this book was not to provide a comprehensive overview of the vast arena of how fungi and fungal metabolites are able to improve human and animal nutrition and health; rather, we, as Guest Editors, wished to encourage authors working in this field to publish their most recent work in this rapidly growing journal in order for the large readership to appreciate the full potential of wonderful and beneficial fungi. Thus, this Special Issue welcomed scientific contributions on applications of fungi and fungal metabolites, such as bioactive fatty acids, pigments, polysaccharides, alkaloids, terpenoids, etc., with great potential in human and animal nutrition and health

World Cotton Germplasm Resources

Preservation of plant germplasm resources is vitally important for mankind to supply food and product security in the globalization and technological advances of the 21st century. Mankind preserved a wealth of available genetic resources of many plant species worldwide. One of the such worldwide plant germplasm resources is available for cotton, a unique natural fiber producing cash crop for mankind. Worldwide cotton germplasm collections exist in Australia, Brazil, China, India, France, Pakistan, Turkey, Russia, United States of America, and Uzbekistan. The objective of World Cotton Germplasm Resources book is to present readers with updated information on existing cotton germplasm resources, highlighting detailed inventory, description, storage conditions, characterization and utilization as well as challenges and perspectives. This book should be a comprehensive encyclopedic reading source for plant research community and students to gather important information on worldwide cotton germplasm resources

Marine Anti-inflammatory Agents

Acute inflammation is a highly regulated process, and its dysregulation can lead to the development of a chronic inflammatory state which is believed to play a main role in the pathogenesis of many diseases, including cancer. In recent years, the need to find new anti-inflammatory molecules has raised the scientific community´s interest for marine natural products. In this regard, the marine environment represents a source for isolating a wealth of bioactive compounds. In this Special Issue, the reported products have been obtained from microalgae, sea cucumber, octopus, squid, red alga-derived fungus, cnidarians, hard-shelled mussel, and sponges

Study on open science: The general state of the play in Open Science principles and practices at European life sciences institutes

Nowadays, open science is a hot topic on all levels and also is one of the priorities of the European Research Area. Components that are commonly associated with open science are open access, open data, open methodology, open source, open peer review, open science policies and citizen science. Open science may a great potential to connect and influence the practices of researchers, funding institutions and the public. In this paper, we evaluate the level of openness based on public surveys at four European life sciences institute