Population Sampling of Chelonians in an Urban Lake in Jonesboro, Craighead County, Arkansas

We conducted a mark-recapture survey for aquatic turtles in Craighead Forest Lake in Jonesboro (Craighead County, Arkansas). From July 2, 2015 to October 14, 2015, we set six hoop nets, baited with fish parts, at specific shoreline locations around the lake. Traps were set twice a week and checked 12 hours after they were set. Carapace length, carapace width, plastron length, and plastron width were measured for each individual. Each turtle was identified to species and its sex was recorded. We also placed a notch in one or more of its marginal scutes to aid in future identification. Finally, a photo was taken of each individual’s carapace and plastron. A total of six species were captured with Red-eared Sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans) being the most common. A single female Razor-backed Musk Turtle (Sternotherus carinatus) was found, which represented a new county record and the first documentation for this species above the 35°N parallel in Arkansas. The only recaptures were Red-eared Sliders. Using the Schnabel Index, we estimated there to be 171 Red-eared Sliders in Craighead Forest Lake. Our findings indicate a diverse chelonian community with a thriving Red-eared Slider population. Future studies should continue to examine the effect of urbanization on turtle population demographics

ASPECTS REGARDING THE ENERGETICALLY EFFICIENCY OF IRRIGATION OF SOME CROPS IN NORTH-EAST ROMANIA

On the basis of some registered information in three areas from Moldova, it was calculated the energy balance and the energetically efficiency of the applied irrigation on eight species of plants. The information's obtained proved that the irrigation process is efficient from the energetically point of view for all the field crops which have been seen in south droughty zone and this process is less efficient in central and moderate warm and moist zone. In the cool moist zone from northern, the irrigation process is efficient only in a few cultures. On the slope lands, where the cultures need more water, the energetically efficiency of the irrigation process is greater than on a plat field. The greatest values of the balance and energetically efficiency were obtained in sugar beet, followed by alfalfa, maize for grain or silage, potato, wheat and sunflower, on the last places coming soybean and bean. There reacted favourable to irrigation the sugar beet, followed by maize for grain or silage, sunflower, potato and wheat, in bean and soybean being registered an energy balance very reduced

Evaluation of emmer wheat genetics resources aimed at dietary food production

Emmer wheat cultivated by organic farmers is used as a component of some bio (organic) food products. Its positive influence on consumer health is caused by grain composition. In the set of 8 emmer wheat accessions, the main grain components, bread making characteristics and contents of health supporting chemical substances such as total dietary fibre content and its components, content of total polyphenols plus catechin and ferulic acid contents, vitamins of the B group and E plus total content of carotenoids were evaluated by standard methods

Long-term Monitoring and Recovery of a Population of Alligator Snapping Turtles, Macrochelys temminckii (Testudines: Chelydridae), from a Northeastern Arkansas Stream

We conducted a mark-recapture study of Alligator Snapping Turtles, Macrochelys temminckii, on Salado Creek (Independence Co., Arkansas) during 10 trapping seasons, which spanned a 20-year period (1995–2015). We trapped a total of 163 Alligator Snapping Turtles during 416 trap nights and recorded a total of 35 recaptures during this study. Both the catch per unit effort (CPUE) and Jolly-Seber approaches demonstrated that this population benefitted from removal of harvest pressure, thus leading to an increase in abundance of Alligator Snapping Turtles in the lower ~5 km of the creek. The CPUE averaged slightly greater than 0.24 (317 trap nights) during the first 4 years (1995–1998). The CPUE also showed an increase to 0.64 by 2001 (only 14 trap nights), and then dramatically increased during the final 5 years to 0.92 (85 trap nights). The population size estimates during the early period of the study (1995–2001) ranged from 20 turtles in 1995 to as many as 88 turtles in 1998, whereas the population size estimates from 2011-2015 ranged from 105 turtles in 2011 to as many as 282 turtles in 2015. Within our sample, recaptured males grew faster on average than females or juveniles in both straight carapace length and mass. These data, however, should be used with caution as age was not known. Most of the recaptured Alligator Snapping Turtles exhibited some degree of site fidelity

EFFICIENCY OF PRODUCTION ON ARABLE LAND IN ORGANIC AND CONVENTIONAL FARMING

One of the most evident difference between conventional and organic farming is yield height. Differences predominantly depend on the crop species and the major drop in yield when organic farming comes in the period of conversion, lower variability feature low-input species. Combination of factors defines overall yield distinction between conventionally and organically grown crops. Even if the organic farming reaches lower yields, differences in costs and prices of products have very strong positive effect on it´s efficiency, which could be even higher when compared to conventional farming

Agronomic characteristics of the spring forms of the wheat landraces (einkorn, emmer, spelt, intermediate bread wheat) grown in organic farming

Organic farmers look to the possibilities of growing neglected crops, such as the spring forms of hulled wheat – einkorn, emmer and spelt – for support in developing the organic farming system. In 2008, 169 landraces from the gene bank at the Crop Research Institute in Prague were tested on certifi ed organic plots. The experiment was aimed at fi nding suitable varieties for the organic farming system. In summary, our fi ndings show that einkorn (Triticum monococcum L.) and emmer wheat [Triticum dicoccum Schrank (Schuebl)] are resistant to powdery mildew and brown rust, spelt wheat (Triticum spelta L.) is less resistant to these two diseases, and the intermediate forms of bread wheat are very sensitive to such infestation. The varieties evaluated incline to lodging, as they have long and weak stems. Einkorn and emmer wheat have short and dense spikes and a low thousand grains weight, whereas spelt wheat has long and lax spikes. The level of the harvest index is low. Potentially useful varieties were found during the fi eld experiment and evaluation, and our future efforts will therefore focus on improving resistance to lodging and increasing the productivity of the spike

Diversity of carbon isotope discrimination in genetic resources of wheat

Strong drought tolerance is an important objective in breeding new wheat varieties. We compared the drought tolerance of land races and modern varieties of various spring wheat forms. 13C discrimination (CID) indicated how significantly the tested wheat varieties were inclined to drought tolerance. CID is a trait related to stomatal closure and consequently an important component of the tolerance to drought. Samples were grown in České Budĕjovice (CZ), from 2009 to 2012. Twenty-three varieties, comprising einkorn, emmer, spelt, land races and control variety of bread wheat were grown and tested. Results have shown some varieties achieved low CID values (which meant they were more inclined to the drought tolerance). There were emmer and spelt varieties among them in particular. The spelt varieties which were inclined to the drought tolerance most significantly were — Triticum spelta No. 8930, Tabor 23 and Tabor 22. The emmer varieties called May-Emmer and Weisser Sommer were also inclined to drought tolerance significantly. By contrast, the intermediate forms, the modern (control) varieties of bread wheat, and einkorn varieties, were expected to be less tolerant to drought as well. Some of the wheat land races (the spelt and the emmer in particular) reached low values of CID. Therefore, they can play the role of drought tolerance donors in the wheat breeding programmes