Using growth and transpiration phenotyping under controlled conditions to select water efficient banana genotypes

Open Access JournalWater deficit is one of the world’s major constraints in agriculture and will aggravate in the future. Banana (Musa spp.) is an important crop that needs vast amounts of water for optimal production. The International Transit Center of Bioversity International holds the world’s biggest collection of banana biodiversity (>1,500 accessions). The long-term aim of this research is to evaluate the potential within this collection for climate smart agricultural usage. Therefore, we developed a phenotyping setup under controlled environmental conditions and we selected 32 representatives of the Musa biodiversity (29 cultivars and 3 wild relatives) for evaluation. The best performing genotypes accumulated six to seven times more biomass than the least performing. Eight genotypes (five ABB, one AAB, and two AAA) invest under osmotic stress significantly more in root growth than in leaf growth. We predict therefore that these genotypes have potential for high productivity under rain fed conditions with a short dry season. To gain more insight in the transpiration physiology, we gravimetrically monitored individual plant transpiration over the diurnal period. All analyzed genotypes showed a marked reduction in transpiration rate in the afternoon. Moreover, the timing of this onset, as well as its impact on total transpiration, was genotype dependent. This phenomenon was more pronounced in 13 genotypes (eight ABB, two AAB, two AA, one BB). Banana is a crop originating from the humid tropics and has developed a strong root pressure to maintain an efficient water and nutrient transport even under saturated relative humidity conditions. Therefore, we hypothesize that the diurnal transpiration decline contributes to a higher water use efficiency without compromising the nutrient transport. Of the eight genotypes that had the best growth under osmotic stress, all analyzed ABB cultivars have a lower maximal transpiration rate, keep this maximal transpiration for a shorter time and therefore consume less water per day. We conclude that lab models are very useful to study the biodiversity and to identify different traits that contribute to a better drought tolerance/avoidance. We encourage researchers investigating other crops to start exploring their collections

Green process innovation: Where we are and where we are going

Environmental pollution has worsened in the past few decades, and increasing pressure is being put on firms by different regulatory bodies, customer groups, NGOs and other media outlets to adopt green process innovations (GPcIs), which include clean technologies and end-of-pipe solutions. Although considerable studies have been published on GPcI, the literature is disjointed, and as such, a comprehensive understanding of the issues, challenges and gaps is lacking. A systematic literature review (SLR) involving 80 relevant studies was conducted to extract seven themes: strategic response, organisational learning, institutional pressures, structural issues, outcomes, barriers and methodological choices. The review thus highlights the various gaps in the GPcI literature and illuminates the pathways for future research by proposing a series of potential research questions. This study is of vital importance to business strategy as it provides a comprehensive framework to help firms understand the various contours of GPcI. Likewise, policymakers can use the findings of this study to fill in the loopholes in the existing regulations that firms are exploiting to circumvent taxes and other penalties by locating their operations to emerging economies with less stringent environmental regulations.publishedVersio

Analysis of the 1980 Sydney Survey of Work Patterns of Married Women: Further Results

Using cross section data from the 1980 Sydney Survey of the work patterns of married women, this paper contributes to the very scarce Australian stock of disaggregate econometric studies of the labour market activities of married women. Labour force participation, hours of work and wage (reservation wage as well as market wage) functions are estimated in a second generation static labour supply framework. Unique features of the study include the availability of direct data on previous market experience, a formulation of the impact of children on the participation decision which permits testing for the presence of economies of scale in child minding activities, estimation of the reservation wage function, and a data base which permits a clear distinction between earnings and other forms of income