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Books > Science & Mathematics > Biology, life sciences > Botany & plant sciences > General
Microbes are ubiquitous in nature. Among microbes, fungal
communities play an important role in agriculture, the environment,
and medicine. Vast fungal diversity has been associated with plant
systems, namely epiphytic fungi, endophytic fungi, and rhizospheric
fungi. These fungi associated with plant systems play an important
role in plant growth, crop yield, and soil health. Rhizospheric
fungi, present in rhizospheric zones, get their nutrients from root
exudates released by plant root systems, which help with their
growth, development, and microbe activity. Endophytic fungi
typically enter plant hosts through naturally occurring wounds that
are the result of plant growth, through root hairs, or at epidermal
conjunctions. Phyllospheric fungi may survive or proliferate on
leaves depending on material influences in leaf diffuseness or
exudates. The diverse nature of these fungal communities is a key
component of soil-plant systems, where they are engaged in a
network of interactions endophytically, phyllospherically, as well
as in the rhizosphere, and thus have emerged as a promising tool
for sustainable agriculture. These fungal communities promote plant
growth directly and indirectly by using plant growth promoting
(PGP) attributes. These PGP fungi can be used as biofertilizers and
biocontrol agents in place of chemical fertilizers and pesticides
for a more eco-friendly method of promoting sustainable agriculture
and environments. This first volume of a two-volume set covers the
biodiversity of plant-associated fungal communities and their role
in plant growth promotion, the mitigation of abiotic stress, and
soil fertility for sustainable agriculture. This book should be
useful to those working in the biological sciences, especially for
microbiologists, microbial biotechnologists, biochemists, and
researchers and scientists of fungal biotechnology.
Photosynthesis has been an important field of research for more
than a century, but the present concerns about energy, environment
and climate have greatly intensified interest in and research on
this topic. Research has progressed rapidly in recent years, and
this book is an interesting read for an audience who is concerned
with various ways of harnessing solar energy.Our understanding of
photosynthesis can now be said to have reached encyclopedic
dimensions. There have been, in the past, many good books at
various levels. Our book is expected to fulfill the needs of
advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students in branches
of biology, biochemistry, biophysics, and bioengineering because
photosynthesis is the basis of future advances in producing more
food, more biomass, more fuel, and new chemicals for our expanding
global human population. Further, the basics of photosynthesis are
and will be used not only for the above, but in artificial
photosynthesis, an important emerging field where chemists,
researchers and engineers of solar energy systems will play a major
role.
This highly visual new guide introduces readers to 100 of the most
memorable trees in the bushveld – the northern and eastern regions of South
Africa, encompassing both the lowveld and the highveld.
An introduction covers the basics of tree anatomy, supported by a
pictorial glossary, and details the author’s streamlined ID method that
enables even novices to make quick and sure identifi cations.
• Most trees are generously featured across double-page spreads;
• Full tree images along with diagnostic photos (bark, leaves, thorns,
fl owers, pods, fruit, etc.) enable readers to distinguish even those trees
that are most confusing, such as the ‘acacias’ or the bushwillows;
• Concise text highlights each tree’s key features;
• Interesting facts, multiple uses and particular value the trees have
among local populations are given.
With its abundant, detailed photographs and straightforward text, this
guide will help readers unlock the complicated world of trees.
This book provides an up-to-date review and analysis of the
carrot's nuclear and organellar genome structure and evolution. In
addition, it highlights applications of carrot genomic information
to elucidate the carrot's natural and agricultural history,
reproductive biology, and the genetic basis of traits important in
agriculture and human health. The carrot genome was sequenced in
2016, and its relatively small diploid genome, combined with the
fact that it is the most complete root crop genome released to date
and the first-ever Euasterid II genome to be sequenced, mean the
carrot has an important role in the study of plant development and
evolution. In addition, the carrot is among the top ten vegetables
grown worldwide, and the abundant orange provitamin A carotenoids
that account for its familiar orange color make it the richest crop
source of vitamin A in the US diet, and in much of the world. This
book includes the latest genetic maps, genetic tools and resources,
and covers advances in genetic engineering that are relevant for
plant breeders and biologists alike.
This book highlights the latest findings on fundamental aspects of
composting, the interaction of various microorganisms, and the
underlying mechanisms. In addition to addressing modern tools and
techniques used for composting research, it provides an overview of
potential composting applications in both agriculture and
environmental reclamation. Composting is the process of organic
waste decomposition, mediated by microorganisms. The end-product is
called 'compost' and can be used as a supplement to improve soil
fertility. As the municipal waste generated in most developing
countries contains a substantial amount of organic matter suitable
for composting, this technology offers a win-win opportunity for
stakeholders in terms of disposing of organic waste and providing
organic fertilizers for agriculture. In addition, using compost
reduces the dependency on harmful chemical fertilizers, and
represents a sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative.
Early anthropological evidence for plant use as medicine is 60,000
years old as reported from the Neanderthal grave in Iraq. The
importance of plants as medicine is further supported by
archeological evidence from Asia and the Middle East. Today, around
1.4 billion people in South Asia alone have no access to modern
health care, and rely instead on traditional medicine to alleviate
various symptoms. On a global basis, approximately 50 to 80
thousand plant species are used either natively or as
pharmaceutical derivatives for life-threatening conditions that
include diabetes, hypertension and cancers. As the demand for
plant-based medicine rises, there is an unmet need to investigate
the quality, safety and efficacy of these herbals by the
"scientific methods". Current research on drug discovery from
medicinal plants involves a multifaceted approach combining
botanical, phytochemical, analytical, and molecular techniques. For
instance, high throughput robotic screens have been developed by
industry; it is now possible to carry out 50,000 tests per day in
the search for compounds, which act on a key enzyme or a subset of
receptors. This and other bioassays thus offer hope that one may
eventually identify compounds for treating a variety of diseases or
conditions. However, drug development from natural products is not
without its problems. Frequent challenges encountered include the
procurement of raw materials, the selection and implementation of
appropriate high-throughput bioassays, and the scaling-up of
preparative procedures. Research scientists should therefore arm
themselves with the right tools and knowledge in order to harness
the vast potentials of plant-based therapeutics. The main objective
of Plant and Human Health is to serve as a comprehensive guide for
this endeavor. Volume 1 highlights how humans from specific areas
or cultures use indigenous plants. Despite technological
developments, herbal drugs still occupy a preferential place in a
majority of the population in the third world and have slowly taken
roots as alternative medicine in the West. The integration of
modern science with traditional uses of herbal drugs is important
for our understanding of this ethnobotanical relationship. Volume 2
deals with the phytochemical and molecular characterization of
herbal medicine. Specifically, it focuess on the secondary
metabolic compounds, which afford protection against diseases.
Lastly, Volume 3 discusses the physiological mechanisms by which
the active ingredients of medicinal plants serve to improve human
health. Together this three-volume collection intends to bridge the
gap for herbalists, traditional and modern medical practitioners,
and students and researchers in botany and horticulture.
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Tracts Relative to Botany; 1805
(Hardcover)
Charles Dietrich Eberhard 1774- Koenig; Moritz Balthasar 1760-1806 Borkhausen; Created by Vicente de 1759?-1829 Cervantes
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R916
Discovery Miles 9 160
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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Currently, there is a need for new management practices for fruit
orchards in order to sustain the growth and productivity of various
fruit crops. In addition, due to the continuous growth in the
world's population, there is a demand for adequate food which is
produced from the same sources of water and soils. The main factors
limiting agricultural production are droughts and the population
growth; this makes it important to prevent fruit production from
being subject to climatic hazards. This book enhances the growth
and productivity of fruit trees through different techniques, such
as artificial intelligence optimization for soil conditioner,
site-specific nutrient management in orchards in fertilizing as an
application of smart agriculture, irrigation, modeling of
parameters of water requirements in fruit orchards, and up-to-date
trends in vineyard practices. The book also explores pest control
on orchards to increase the efficiency of pesticides and protect
the environment and discusses the shading of citrus orchards to
avoid negative impacts such as rising temperatures and heatwaves on
citrus productivity. Finally, the book discusses the carbon and
water footprint for various fruit orchards. This book is ideal for
researchers and academics of horticultural science, agricultural
organizations, fruit growers, and economics and data analyzers.
Global climate change requires the development of programs that
consider the active restoration of degraded forests and the use of
native trees in afforestation to preserve the natural environment.
International commitments like the UN REDD program, the Montreal
Process and the Convention on Biological Diversity call for the
breeding of species rarely contemplated by large industrial
companies. Low-intensity breeding is the most rational strategy for
those species: simple but robust, and not dependent on continuously
increasing funding, and therefore effective even with a relatively
small budget. It commonly focuses on high genetic diversity rather
than improving economic traits and adaptability rather than
productivity. Controlled crosses with full pedigrees typical of
high-intensity breeding are replaced by open pollination. This book
presents state-of-the-art breeding strategies from the last two
decades for several forest tree species of prime importance in the
natural forests of Argentina. They are distributed in the three
main forestry ecoregions of the country: the subtropical dry forest
(Chaco), the subtropical rain forests (Yungas and Alto Parana
rainforests) and the temperate forests of Patagonia. The book also
discusses the genetic patterns of the selected species defined
using genetic markers together with the analysis of the variation
in quantitative traits. Further, it examines the crucial features
of their reproductive biology, such as the mating system and gene
flow and describes the current breeding programs. Lastly, it
presents the latest developments in genetic resources and their
emerging applications, concluding with some reflections and
perspectives related to the conditioning imposed by climate change.
Plant endophytes are a potential source for the production of
bioactive compounds that can fight against devastating diseases in
both plants and humans. Among these endophytic microorganisms,
endophytic fungi are one of the dominant group of microorganisms
with a potential role in plant growth promotion and the discovery
of noble bioactive natural products. Endophytic fungi possess
several bioactivities like anticancer, antimicrobial, insecticidal,
plant growth stimulants, crop protection, phytoremediation, etc.
Presence of modular biosynthetic genes clusters like PKS and NRPS
in several endophytic fungi underscores the need to understand and
explore such organisms. This volume presents and demonstrates the
applied aspects of endophytic fungi. Practical applications of such
endophytes are discussed in detail, including studies in
pharmaceutical development and agricultural management of important
microbial diseases. The beneficial effects that endophytic fungi
provide to host plants-enhancing growth, increasing fitness,
strengthening tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses through
secondary metabolites-are also discussed. The reader is provided
with a comprehensive and detailed understanding of such
relationships between endophytic fungi and their host.
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