’n Regstreekse, voor die hand liggende en effektiewe gids tot boom-identifikasie.

Dié boek se titel sê dit alles! Hierdie bygewerkte tweede uitgawe verskaf ’n duidelike uiteensetting van hoe bome saamgestel is en waarna om op te let wanneer ’n boom geïdentifiseer word. Die boek bestaan uit twee dele:

- Deel 1 beskryf en illustreer duidelik die verskillende dele van ’n boom en hul rol in boomidentifikasie.

- Deel 2 bevat ’n sleutel tot 43 boomgroepe, gebaseer op maklik waarneembare stingel- en blaarkenmerke. Dit gee ’n duidelike oorsig van elke groep, sowel as die Suider-Afrikaanse boomfamilies wat in die onderskeie groepe verteenwoordig word. Talle kleurfoto’s en verduidelikende illustrasies ondersteun die teks wat dié handleiding toeganklik en gebruikersvriendelik maak.

Identifiseer die Bome van Suider-Afrika sal lesers toerus met ’n goeie begrip van die bou van bome en waarna hulle moet oplet om dit korrek te kan identifiseer.

Also available in English as How to Identify Trees in Southern Africa .

This book describes the latest advances in systems biology in four plant-based marine ecosystems: seaweeds, seagrasses, microalgae, and corals. Marine organisms that inhabit the oceanic environment experience a diverse range of environmental fluctuations, anthropogenic stress, and threats from invasive species and pathogens. System biology integrates physiology, genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics into numerical models and is emerging as an important approach to elucidate the functional adaptations of marine organisms to adverse environmental conditions. This book focuses on how ecophysiology, omics platforms, their integration (a systems biology perspective), and next generation sequencing tools are being used to address the stress response of marine seaweeds, seagrasses, corals, marine microbe diversity, and micro-and macroalgae/corals-bacterial interactions to global climate change and anthropogenic activities. The contents of the book are of special interest to graduate and postgraduate marine biology students and marine biology researchers, particularly those interested in marine ecology, stress physiology of marine macrophytes/corals/phytoplankton, and environmental microbiology. This book would also be of interest to marine engineers engaged in the management and conservation of our valuable marine resources.

Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan) is a crop of small land holding farmers in arid and semi-arid regions of the world. It has a number of usages starting from protein rich food to vegetarian families; fuel wood; nitrogen supplier to soil; recycling minerals in soil to animal feed etc. Pigeonpea has been considered to be originated and domesticated in central India from where it travelled to different parts of the world such as Africa and Latin America. In ongoing scenario of climate change, biotic and especially abiotic stresses will make the conditions more challenging for entire agriculture. This volume focusing on the pigeonpea genome will collate the information on the genome sequencing and its utilization in genomics activities, with a focus on the current findings, advanced tools and strategies deployed in pigeonpea genome sequencing and analysis, and how this information is leading to direct outcomes for plant breeders and subsequently to farmers.

Plant Micronutrient Use Efficiency: Molecular and Genomic Perspectives in Crop Plants presents information on the complex mechanisms regulating micronutrient use efficiency in plants. Understanding this science is essential for the development of new varieties of crop plants that are more resilient to micronutrient stress, as well as plants with increased bioavailable concentrations of essential micronutrients. This book explores the discovery of novel genes and key metabolic pathways associated with micronutrient use efficiency in plants, gives an analyses of the gene expression patterns in plants in response to low and/or high nutrient levels, and investigates the potential functions of these genes and their products. Strategies to enhance micronutrient use efficiency and stress tolerance, to develop bio-fortified crop, and to improve the sustainable utilization of natural resources are critically evaluated. The book contains both fundamental and advanced information as well as critical commentaries that are useful for those involved in the various fields that make up the plant sciences.

Rock surfaces provide a challenging habitat for a broad diversity of micro- or small-sized organisms. They interact with each other forming complex communities as well with their substrate causing biodeterioration of rock. Extreme fluctuation in light, temperature and hydration are the main factors that determine the rock surface habitats. The habitat includes epilithic organisms which thrive on the surface without penetrating the rock, endolithic organisms which live just beneath the surface using a thin layer of the rock surface for protection against adverse conditions of the environment (e.g. light protection, storage of water) and chasmo-endolithic organisms which use fractures of the rock surface for a more habitable environment. The book will provide an overview of the various organismal groups, from prokaryotes to vascular plants and arthropods, as well as survey organism-mediated interactions with the rock surface. The latter include biogenic weathering (biogeochemistry, state-of-the art imaging methods), photosynthesis and nitrogen fixation at and inside the rock surface.

This book addresses all the major mechanisms by which endophytes are thought to impact plant growth and health. A unique aspect of this publication is that it is multidisciplinary, covering plant microbiology, plant physiology, fungal and bacterial endophytes, plant biochemistry, and genomics. Just as research on the mammalian microbiome has demonstrated its importance for overall health of the host, the plant microbiota is essential for plant health in natural environments. Endophytes, the microorganisms living fully within plants, can provide a multitude of benefits to the host including N-fixation, P solubilization, increased photosynthetic efficiency and water use efficiency, stress tolerance, pathogen resistance, and overall increased growth and health. A variety of culturable endophytes have been isolated and shown to be mutualistic symbionts with a broad range of plant species. These studies point to the functional importance of the microbiota of plants and suggest the potential for tailoring plant microbiota for improved vigor and yields with reduced inputs. This review covers the major benefits of microbial endophytes to plants and discusses the implications of using symbiosis as an alternative to chemical inputs for agriculture, forestry, and bioenergy.

Advances in Agronomy continues to be recognized as a leading reference and first-rate source for the latest research in agronomy. Each volume contains an eclectic group of reviews by leading scientists throughout the world. As always, the subjects covered are rich, varied, and exemplary of the abundant subject matter addressed by this long-running serial.

This book systematically discusses the vegetation dynamics in northern China since the LGM, with a focus on three dominant tree species (Pinus, Quercus and Betula). By integrating methods of palaeoecology, phylogeography and species distribution model, it reconstructs the glacial refugia in northern China, demonstrating that the species were located further north than previously assumed during the LGM. The postglacial dynamics of forest distribution included not only long-distance north-south migration but also local spread from LGM micro-refugia in northern China. On the regional scale, the book shows the altitudinal migration pattern of the three dominant tree genera and the role of topographical factors in the migration of the forest-steppe border. On the catchment scale, it analyzes Huangqihai Lake, located in the forest-steppe ecotone in northern China, to indentify the local forest dynamics response to the Holocene climatic change. It shows that local forests have various modes of response to the climate drying, including shrubland expansion, savannification and replacement of steppe. In brief, these studies at different space-time scales illustrate the effects of climate, topography and other factors on forest migration.

This fourth edition provides new and updated protocols on plant cell, tissue, and organ cultures. Chapters are divided into five parts that cover topics from general methodologies, statistical analysis and contamination control, highly specialized techniques, and laborious process of measuring the epigenetics changes in tissue cultures. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and cutting-edge, Plant Cell Culture Protocols, Fourth Edition aims to serve both professionals and novices with its guide to the most common and applicable techniques and methods for plant tissue and cell culture.

Population genomics has revolutionized various disciplines of biology including population, evolutionary, ecological and conservation genetics, plant and animal breeding, human health, medicine and pharmacology by allowing to address novel and long-standing questions with unprecedented power and accuracy. It employs large-scale or genome-wide genetic information and bioinformatics to address various fundamental and applied aspects in biology and related disciplines, and provides a comprehensive genome-wide perspective and new insights that were not possible before. These advances have become possible due to the development of new and low-cost sequencing and genotyping technologies and novel statistical approaches and software, bioinformatics tools, and models. Population genomics is tremendously advancing our understanding the roles of evolutionary processes, such as mutation, genetic drift, gene flow, and natural selection, in shaping up genetic variation at individual loci and across the genome and populations; improving the assessment of population genetic parameters or processes such as adaptive evolution, effective population size, gene flow, admixture, inbreeding and outbreeding depression, demography, and biogeography; resolving evolutionary histories and phylogenetic relationships of extant, ancient and extinct species; understanding the genomic basis of fitness, adaptation, speciation, complex ecological and economically important traits, and disease and insect resistance; facilitating forensics, genetic medicine and pharmacology; delineating conservation genetic units; and understanding the genetic effects of resource management practices, and assisting conservation and sustainable management of genetic resources. This Population Genomics book discusses the concepts, approaches, applications and promises of population genomics in addressing most of the above fundamental and applied crucial aspects in a variety of organisms from microorganisms to humans. The book provides insights into a range of emerging population genomics topics including population epigenomics, landscape genomics, seascape genomics, paleogenomics, ecological and evolutionary genomics, biogeography, demography, speciation, admixture, colonization and invasion, genomic selection, and plant and animal domestication. This book fills a vacuum in the field and is expected to become a primary reference in Population Genomics world-wide.