An Experimental Comparison of Leaf Decomposition Rates in a Wide Range of Temperate Plant Species and Types

Potable and good-quality drinking water availability is a serious global concern, since several pollution sources significantly contribute to low water quality. Amongst these pollution sources, several are releasing an array of hazardous agents into various environmental and water matrices. Unfortunately, there are not very many ecologically friendly systems available to treat the contaminated environment exclusively. Consequently, heavy metal water contamination leads to many diseases in humans, such as cardiopulmonary diseases and cytotoxicity, among others. To solve this problem, there are a plethora of emerging technologies that play an important role in defining treatment strategies. Phytoremediation, the usage of plants to remove contaminants, is a technology that has been widely used to remediate pollution in soils, with particular reference to toxic elements. Thus, hydroponic systems coupled with bioremediation for the removal of water contaminants have shown great relevance. In this review, we addressed several studies that support the development of phytoremediation systems in water. We cover the importance of applied science and environmental engineering to generate sustainable strategies to improve water quality. In this context, the phytoremediation capabilities of different plant species and possible obstacles that phytoremediation systems may encounter are discussed with suitable examples by comparing different mechanistic processes. According to the presented data, there are a wide range of plant species with water phytoremediation potential that need to be studied from a multidisciplinary perspective to make water phytoremediation a viable method.

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Native Plant Capacity for Gentle Remediation in Heavily Polluted Mines

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app11041769 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 1769

Author(s):

María Noelia Jiménez ◽

Gianluigi Bacchetta ◽

Francisco Bruno Navarro ◽

Mauro Casti ◽

Emilia Fernández-Ondoño

Keyword(s):

Trace Elements ◽

Plant Species ◽

Contaminated Soils ◽

Aerial Part ◽

Bioaccumulation Factor ◽

Native Plant ◽

Dittrichia Viscosa ◽

Wide Range ◽

Cistus Salviifolius ◽

Plant Capacity

The use of plant species to stabilize and accumulate trace elements in contaminated soils is considered of great usefulness given the difficulty of decontaminating large areas subjected to mining for long periods. In this work, the bioaccumulation of trace elements is studied by relating the concentrations in leaves and roots of three plants of Mediterranean distribution (Dittrichia viscosa, Cistus salviifolius, Euphorbia pithyusa subsp. cupanii) with the concentrations of trace elements in contaminated and uncontaminated soils. Furthermore, in the case of D. viscosa, to know the concentration of each element by biomass, the pool of trace elements was determined both in the aerial part and in the roots. The bioaccumulation factor was not high enough in any of the species studied to be considered as phytoextractors. However, species like the ones studied in this work that live on soils with a wide range of concentration of trace elements and that develop a considerable biomass could be considered for stabilization of contaminated soils. The plant species studied in this work are good candidates for gentle-remediation options in the polluted Mediterranean.

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Periodic wavelet descriptor of plant leaf and its application in botany

International Journal of Wavelets Multiresolution and Information Processing ◽

10.1142/s0219691315500435 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 13 (06) ◽

pp. 1550043 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Qing-Mao Zeng ◽

Tong-Lin Zhu ◽

Xue-Ying Zhuang ◽

Ming-Xuan Zheng

Keyword(s):

Species Identification ◽

Plant Species ◽

Shape Descriptor ◽

Plant Leaf ◽

Practical Applications ◽

Wide Range ◽

Periodic Wavelet ◽

Plant Species Identification ◽

Botanical Research ◽

Wavelet Descriptor

Leaf is one of the most important organs of plant. Leaf contour or outline, usually a closed curve, is a fundamental morphological feature of leaf in botanical research. In this paper, a novel shape descriptor based on periodic wavelet series and leaf contour is presented, which we name as Periodic Wavelet Descriptor (PWD). The PWD of a leaf actually expresses the leaf contour in a vector form. Consequently, the PWD of a leaf has a wide range in practical applications, such as leaf modeling, plant species identification and classification, etc. In this work, the plant species identification and the leaf contour reconstruction, as two practical applications, are discussed to elaborate how to employ the PWD of a plant leaf in botanical research.

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Responses of insect pests, pathogens, and invasive plant species to climate change in the forests of northeastern North America: What can we predict?This article is one of a selection of papers from NE Forests 2100: A Synthesis of Climate Change Impacts on Forests of the Northeastern US and Eastern Canada.

Canadian Journal of Forest Research ◽

10.1139/x08-171 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 39 (2) ◽

pp. 231-248 ◽

Cited By ~ 268

Author(s):

Jeffrey S. Dukes ◽

Jennifer Pontius ◽

David Orwig ◽

Jeffrey R. Garnas ◽

Vikki L. Rodgers ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Plant Species ◽

Invasive Plant ◽

Insect Pests ◽

Adelges Tsugae ◽

Pest Species ◽

Invasive Plant Species ◽

Eastern Canada ◽

Wide Range ◽

Nuisance Species

Climate models project that by 2100, the northeastern US and eastern Canada will warm by approximately 3–5 °C, with increased winter precipitation. These changes will affect trees directly and also indirectly through effects on “nuisance” species, such as insect pests, pathogens, and invasive plants. We review how basic ecological principles can be used to predict nuisance species’ responses to climate change and how this is likely to impact northeastern forests. We then examine in detail the potential responses of two pest species (hemlock woolly adelgid ( Adelges tsugae Annand) and forest tent caterpillar ( Malacosoma disstria Hubner)), two pathogens (armillaria root rot ( Armillaria spp.) and beech bark disease ( Cryptococcus fagisuga Lind. + Neonectria spp.)), and two invasive plant species (glossy buckthorn ( Frangula alnus Mill.) and oriental bittersweet ( Celastrus orbiculatus Thunb.)). Several of these species are likely to have stronger or more widespread effects on forest composition and structure under the projected climate. However, uncertainty pervades our predictions because we lack adequate data on the species and because some species depend on complex, incompletely understood, unstable relationships. While targeted research will increase our confidence in making predictions, some uncertainty will always persist. Therefore, we encourage policies that allow for this uncertainty by considering a wide range of possible scenarios.

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Sesquiterpene emissions from vegetation: a review

Biogeosciences ◽

10.5194/bg-5-761-2008 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 5 (3) ◽

pp. 761-777 ◽

Cited By ~ 175

Author(s):

T. R. Duhl ◽

D. Helmig ◽

A. Guenther

Keyword(s):

Plant Species ◽

Emission Rates ◽

Sample Collection ◽

Ambient Temperatures ◽

Relative Contribution ◽

Environmental Controls ◽

Weather Events ◽

Wide Range ◽

Experimental Protocols ◽

Selection Of Species

Abstract. This literature review summarizes the environmental controls governing biogenic sesquiterpene (SQT) emissions and presents a compendium of numerous SQT-emitting plant species as well as the quantities and ratios of SQT species they have been observed to emit. The results of many enclosure-based studies indicate that temporal SQT emission variations appear to be dominated mainly by ambient temperatures although other factors contribute (e.g., seasonal variations). This implies that SQT emissions have increased significance at certain times of the year, especially in late spring to mid-summer. The strong temperature dependency of SQT emissions also creates the distinct possibility of increasing SQT emissions in a warmer climate. Disturbances to vegetation (from herbivores and possibly violent weather events) are clearly also important in controlling short-term SQT emissions bursts, though the relative contribution of disturbance-induced emissions is not known. Based on the biogenic SQT emissions studies reviewed here, SQT emission rates among numerous species have been observed to cover a wide range of values, and exhibit substantial variability between individuals and across species, as well as at different environmental and phenological states. These emission rates span several orders of magnitude (10s–1000s of ng gDW-1 h−1). Many of the higher rates were reported by early SQT studies, which may have included artificially-elevated SQT emission rates due to higher-than-ambient enclosure temperatures and disturbances to enclosed vegetation prior to and during sample collection. When predicting landscape-level SQT fluxes, modelers must consider the numerous sources of variability driving observed SQT emissions. Characterizations of landscape and global SQT fluxes are highly uncertain given differences and uncertainties in experimental protocols and measurements, the high variability in observed emission rates from different species, the selection of species that have been studied so far, and ambiguities regarding controls over emissions. This underscores the need for standardized experimental protocols, better characterization of disturbance-induced emissions, screening of dominant plant species, and the collection of multiple replicates from several individuals within a given species or genus as well as a better understanding of seasonal dependencies of SQT emissions in order to improve the representation of SQT emission rates.

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Cloning and Mapping of a Putative Barley NADPH-Dependent HC-Toxin Reductase

Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions ◽

10.1094/mpmi.1997.10.2.234 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 234-239 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

F. Han ◽

A. Kleinhofs ◽

A. Kilian ◽

S. E. Ullrich

Keyword(s):

Plant Species ◽

Chromosome 9 ◽

Immature Embryos ◽

Chromosome 1 ◽

Grass Species ◽

Cochliobolus Carbonum ◽

Wide Range ◽

Young Leaves ◽

High Conservation ◽

Hc Toxin

The NADPH-dependent HC-toxin reductase (HCTR), encoded by Hm1 in maize, inactivates HC-toxin produced by the fungus Cochliobolus carbonum, and thus confers resistance to the pathogen. The fact that C. carbonum only infects maize (Zea mays) and is the only species known to produce HC-toxin raises the question: What are the biological functions of HCTR in other plant species? An HCTR-like enzyme may function to detoxify toxins produced by pathogens which infect other plant species (R. B. Meeley, G. S. Johal, S. E. Briggs, and J. D. Walton, Plant Cell, 4:71–77, 1992). Hm1 homolog in rice (Y. Hihara, M. Umeda, C. Hara, Q. Liu, S. Aotsuka, K. Toriyama, and H. Uchimiya, unpublished) and HCTR activity in barley, wheat, oats and sorghum have been reported (R. B. Meeley and J. D. Walton, Plant Physiol. 97:1080–1086, 1993). To investigate the sequence conservation of Hm1 and HCTR in barley and the possible relationship of barley Hm1 homolog to the known disease resistance genes, we cloned and mapped a barley (Hordeum vulgare) Hm1-like gene. A putative full-length cDNA clone, Bhm1-18, was isolated from a cDNA library consisting of mRNA from young leaves, inflorescences, and immature embryos. This 1,297-bp clone encodes 363 amino acids which show great similarity (81.6%) with the amino acid sequence of HM1 in maize. Two loci were mapped to barley molecular marker linkage maps with Bhm1-18 as the probe; locus A (Bhm1A) on the long arm of chromosome 1, and locus B (Bhm1B) on the short arm of chromosome 1 which is syntenic to maize chromosome 9 containing the Hm2 locus. The Bhm1-18 probe hybridized strongly to a Southern blot of a wide range of grass species, indicating high conservation of HCTR at the DNA sequence level among grasses. The HCTR mRNA was detected in barley roots, leaves, inflorescences, and immature embryos. The conservation of the HCTR sequence, together with its expression in other plant species (R. B. Meeley and J. D. Walton, Plant Physiol. 97:1080–1086, 1993), suggests HCTR plays an important functional role in other plant species.

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Methylene Blue Stainability of Root-Tip Protoplasts as an Indicator of Aluminum Tolerance in a Wide Range of Plant Species, Cultivars and Lines

Soil Science & Plant Nutrition ◽

10.1111/j.1747-0765.2005.tb00138.x ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 51 (7) ◽

pp. 991-998 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Tadao Wagatsuma ◽

Md. Shahadat Hossain Khan ◽

Idupulapati M. Rao ◽

Peter Wenzl ◽

Keitarou Tawaraya ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Methylene Blue ◽

Plant Species ◽

Aluminum Tolerance ◽

Root Tip ◽

Wide Range

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Role of salicylic acid in acclimation to low temperature

Acta Agronomica Hungarica ◽

10.1556/aagr.61.2013.2.7 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 61 (2) ◽

pp. 161-172 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

M. Pál ◽

O. Gondor ◽

T. Janda

Keyword(s):

Salicylic Acid ◽

Low Temperature ◽

Plant Species ◽

Membrane Integrity ◽

Stress Factors ◽

Limiting Factors ◽

Wide Range ◽

Metabolic Reactions ◽

Related Compounds

Low temperature is one of the most important limiting factors for plant growth throughout the world. Exposure to low temperature may cause various phenotypic and physiological symptoms, and may result in oxidative stress, leading to loss of membrane integrity and to the impairment of photosynthesis and general metabolic processes. Salicylic acid (SA), a phenolic compound produced by a wide range of plant species, may participate in many physiological and metabolic reactions in plants. It has been shown that exogenous SA may provide protection against low temperature injury in various plant species, while various stress factors may also modify the synthesis and metabolism of SA. In the present review, recent results on the effects of SA and related compounds in processes leading to acclimation to low temperatures will be discussed.

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Medicinal use of Sceletium: Characterization of Phytochemical Components of Sceletium Plant Species using HPLC with UV and Electrospray Ionization – Tandem Mass Spectroscopy

Journal of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences ◽

10.18433/j3330x ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 18 (4) ◽

pp. 414 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Srinivas Patnala ◽

Isadore Kanfer

Keyword(s):

Electrospray Ionization ◽

Plant Species ◽

Mass Spectroscopy ◽

Uv Detection ◽

Tandem Mass ◽

Esi Ms ◽

Ms Detection ◽

Wide Range ◽

Tandem Mass Spectroscopy ◽

Phytochemical Components

Purpose. Sceletium plants have been used for its medicinal properties for centuries. However, there is a wide range of Sceletium plant species in which various alkaloidal components such as ∆7mesembrenone, mesembrenol, mesembranol, mesembrenone, mesembrine hydrochloride, epimesembranol and, sceletium A4 differ between species. Hence, to ensure the quality of Sceletium products used as a medicine, it is imperative to identify the appropriate species using both botanical and chemical methods. The chemical approach to identify and characterize the phytochemical composition of a particular species facilitates the choice of species that will provide the purported therapeutic outcome. Hence, specific analytical methods to identify relevant constituents from complex matrices are necessary. Although HPLC-UV detection is commonly used to identify and estimate phytochemical content of medicinal plants, use of mass spectroscopy (MS) and tandem mass spectroscopy (MS/MS) can unequivocally confirm their presence/absence based on characteristic ions and fragmentation patterns. Methods. The various alkaloidal components were characterized by electrospray ionization (ESI) MS and MS/MS using an ionizing medium of 0.1% ammonium hydroxide in water mixed with acetonitrile. Compounds were purified and characterized for use as reference standards to identify the relevant alkaloidal constituents of several Sceletium plant species using HPLC with on-line UV-MS detection. Results. ESI-MS provided the [M+H]+ ions with respective m/z values that related to the respective molecular weights 287, 289, 291, 287, 289, 324 and 291 for the above mentioned alkaloids, whereas, ESI MS/MS provided the characteristic fragment ions to confirm the structural identity of the individual alkaloids and subsequently used to confirm the presence and/or absence of specific alkaloids in various Sceletium plant samples. Conclusions. Whilst HPLC-UV detection has been a widely-used conventional analytical technique for both qualitative and quantitative analyses, the results highlight the necessity of ESI-MS detection to avoid erroneous identification of phytochemical components, particularly with mesembrine-type compounds which have closely related chemical structures. This article is open to POST-PUBLICATION REVIEW. Registered readers (see “For Readers”) may comment by clicking on ABSTRACT on the issue’s contents page.

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