Growth and nutrition of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) under water deficit as influenced by microbial inoculation via seed coating

Drought can drastically reduce cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.] biomass and grain yield. The application of plant growth‐promoting rhizobacteria and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi can confer resistance to plants and reduce the effects of environmental stresses, including drought. Seed coating is a technique which allows the application of minor amounts of microbial inocula. Main effects of the factors inoculation and water regime showed that: severe or moderate water deficit had a general negative impact on cowpea plants; total biomass production, seed weight and seed yield were enhanced in plants inoculated with P. putida; inoculation of R. irregularis significantly increased nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) shoot concentrations; and R. irregularis enhanced both chlorophyll b and carotenoids contents, particularly under severe water deficit. Plants inoculated with P. putida + R. irregularis had an increase in shoot P concentration of 85% and 57%, under moderate and severe water deficit, respectively. Singly inoculated P. putida improved potassium shoot concentration by 25% under moderate water deficit. Overall, in terms of agricultural productivity the inoculation of P. putida under water deficit might be promising. Seed coating has the potential to be used as a large‐scale delivery system of beneficial microbial inoculants.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Effects of Aphid Traits on Parasitoid Host Use and Specialist Advantage

Specialization is a central concept in ecology and one of the fundamental properties of parasitoids. Highly specialized parasitoids tend to be more efficient in host-use compared to generalized parasitoids, presumably owing to the trade-off between host range and hostuse efficiency. However, it remains unknown how parasitoid host specificity and host-use depends on host traits related to susceptibility to parasitoid attack. To address this question, we used data from a 13-year survey of interactions among 142 aphid and 75 parasitoid species in nine European countries. We found that only aphid traits related to local resource characteristics seem to influence the trade-off between host-range and efficiency: more specialized parasitoids had an apparent advantage (higher abundance on shared hosts) on aphids with sparse colonies, ant-attendance and without concealment, and this was more evident when host relatedness was included in calculation of parasitoid specificity. More traits influenced average assemblage specialization, which was highest in aphids that are monophagous, monoecious, large, highly mobile (easily drop from a plant), without myrmecophily, habitat specialists, inhabit non-agricultural habitats and have sparse colonies. Differences in aphid wax production did not influence parasitoid host specificity and host-use. Our study is the first step in identifying host traits important for aphid parasitoid host specificity and host-use and improves our understanding of bottom-up effects of aphid traits on aphid-parasitoid food web structure

The use of systemic hypothermia for the treatment of an acute cervical spinal cord injury in a professional football player

Case Report. We will describe the injury and clinical course of an NFL Football player who sustained a complete spinal cord injury and was treated with conventional care in addition to modest systemic hypothermia. Systemically induced moderate hypothermia is a potentially neuroprotective intervention in acute spinal cord injury. However, case descriptions of human patients receiving systemic hypothermia after spinal cord injuries are lacking in the literature. Here, we present the case of a National Football League player who sustained a complete (ASIA A) spinal cord injury from a C3/4 fracture dislocation. Moderate systemic hypothermia was instituted immediately after his injury, in addition to standard medical/surgical treatment, including, surgical decompression and intravenous methylprednisolone. The patient experienced significant and rapid neurologic improvement, and within weeks of his injury was walking with harness assistance. Since that time, the patient has continued to make significant progress in his rehabilitation (now ASIA D). The extent to which this hypothermia contributed to his neurologic recovery is difficult to determine. It is hoped that this case will draw attention to the need for further preclinical and clinical studies to elucidate the role of hypothermia in acute spinal cord injury. Until these studies are completed, it is impossible to advocate for systemic hypothermia as a standard of care

Patch size and population density: The effect of immigration behavior

Many habitat fragmentation experiments make the prediction that animal population density will be positively related to fragment, or patch, size. The mechanism that is supposed to result in this prediction is unclear, but several recent reviews have demonstrated that population density often is negatively related to patch size. Immigration behavior is likely to have an important effect on population density for species that do not show strong edge effects, for species that have low emigration rates, and during short-term habitat fragmentation experiments. We consider the effect that different kinds of immigration behaviors will have on population density and we demonstrate that only a minority of possible scenarios produce positive density vs. patch size relationships. More commonly, these relationships are expected to be negative. Our results demonstrate the importance of considering autecological mechanisms, such as immigration behavior, when developing the predictions that we test in habitat fragmentation or other experiments. Copyrigh