Occurrence Of Plants Research Articles

Hotter temperatures alter riparian plant outcomes under regulated river conditions

AbstractClimate change and river regulation alter environmental controls on riparian plant occurrence and cover worldwide. Simultaneous changes to river flow and air temperature could result in unanticipated plant responses to novel environmental conditions. Increasing temperature could alter riparian plant response to hydrology and other factors, while river regulation may exacerbate environmental stress through novel flows like those resulting from power generation. Further, plant establishment and growth may require differing conditions, which may be decoupled by novel conditions. Using a large dataset that spans a natural 5°C mean annual temperature (MAT) gradient and a Bayesian model that integrates plant occurrence and cover, we address four questions: (1) Does hotter MAT modify plant response to hydrology, substrate composition, topography, and cover of co‐occurring plant species? (2) Does the timing of hydropower tides benefit some species over others? (3) Does dam‐induced erosion hinder riparian species more than upland species? (4) Do occurrence and cover respond to different environmental variables, allowing for decoupling of life history processes? We addressed these questions with data collected along 364 km of the Colorado River downstream of Glen Canyon Dam, Arizona, United States of America. Occurrence and cover class were recorded in >10,000 plots from 2016 to 2020, along with environmental covariates that repeat across the climate gradient. For 36 species, plant occurrence and cover were modeled with respect to MAT, hydrology, substrate, topography, other plant cover, and their interactions with MAT. There were four key results. (1) Increasing MAT will not only directly influence plants but will mediate their responses to the environment, including greater dependence on stable water supplies. (2) The timing of hydropower tides shapes plant community composition. (3) Dam‐related erosion has an outsized effect on riparian species, which could lead to a loss of regionally unique plant species. (4) For all species, the most important covariates driving occurrence differed from those for cover, suggesting the potential for these life stages to be decoupled. Not only will climate change and river regulation independently alter plant distributions, interactions among hotter temperature, dam‐controlled flow patterns, and limited fine sediments will determine which species flourish or perish under future conditions.

Landscape Effects on Local Species Richness of Woody Specialists in Subtropical Montane Cloud Forest of Taiwan

ABSTRACTAimHow is the local species richness of woody specialists in vegetation plots located within subtropical montane cloud forests (SMCFs) affected by the landscape structure of the surrounding SMCF habitat patch?LocationSubtropical montane cloud forests in Taiwan.TaxonWoody species specialised in growing in foggy conditions.MethodsWe used plant occurrence data from major herbaria together with fog frequency data to identify fog specialists of SMCFs in Taiwan. Subsequently, we extracted 20 × 20 m forest vegetation plots from the National Vegetation Database of Taiwan and calculated the richness of woody specialists in each of them. Using a published predicted SMCFs distribution map, we estimated the landscape context of SMCFs around each vegetation plot within circular buffer zones of increasing radius. The variables of landscape structure include those related to the area of SMCFs habitat (area and connectivity), surrounding heterogeneity (topographical heterogeneity and vegetation diversity) and edge effect (the nearest distance from the plot to the edge and the edge length). The multiple linear regression model was used to investigate which of the three mechanisms of landscape context has the strongest effect on the local richness of fog specialists.ResultsOnly the area of SMCFs habitat patch shows a significant positive effect on the local species richness of woody specialists in the plot when considering all the landscape variables. Area per se might be a possible mechanism that supports this positive species‐area relationship. Additionally, the area of SMCFs patch is highly correlated with connectivity, indicating that larger SMCF patches enhance connectivity beyond buffer zones, sustaining species through the rescue effect from the regional species pool.Main ConclusionsPatch size and connectivity are crucial for the species richness of woody specialists in SMCFs in Taiwan. For conservation, we recommend protecting larger, less fragmented SMCF patches to maintain biodiversity.

Occurrence, removal, and ecological risk of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes in township wastewater treatment plants in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, China.

The excessive use of antibiotics contributes significantly to environmental pollution and the widespread presence of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), which poses a serious threat to aquatic ecosystems and human health. Despite being a critical source of antibiotics and ARGs in the environment, research exploring their occurrence and removal characteristics in township wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) remains limited. This study investigated the abundance and removal efficiencies of 39 antibiotics and 8 ARGs in influent and effluent samples from 40 township WWTPs located in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Antibiotics were detected in both influents and effluents, with detection frequencies (DFs) ranging from 2.44% to 100%. In contrast, all targeted ARGs exhibied 100% DFs in both influents and effluents. The average concentrations of antibiotics in influents and effluents were 370.67ng/L and 242.06ng/L, respectively, and the ARGs concentrations were 9.88 × 106 and 7.10 × 105 copies/mL, respectively. Among the antibiotics analyzed, macrolides and fluoroquinolones accounted for over 70% of the total antibiotic concentrations in both influent and effluent samples. Additionally, sul1 and sul2 were identified as the predominant ARGs, constituting more than 99% of the total abundance in both influent and effluent samples. Notably, significant correlations between the ARGs and their respective antibiotics were not consistently observed. The average removal efficiencies for total antibiotics and ARGs by township WWTPs were 34.70% and 93.30%, respectively. Furthermore, all calculated ecological risk values (risk quotient, RQ) for individual antibiotics in effluent samples were below one, except for oxytetracycline, which had RQ values greater than one in three effluents. The total RQs, representing the sum of individual RQs, indicated that 11 effluents presented a high risk (27.50%), while 17 effluents exhibited a moderate risk (42.50%). These findings suggest that township WWTPs may represent a significant source of antibiotics and ARGs in the environment, necessitating further process improvements for their effective elimination.

Predicted occurrence and abundance habitat suitability of invasive plants in the contiguous United States: updates for the INHABIT web tool

Invasive plant species have substantial negative ecological and economic impacts. Geographic information on the potential and actual distributions of invasive plants is critical for their effective management. For many regions, numerous sources of predictive geographic information exist for invasive plants, often in the form of outputs from species distribution models (SDMs). The creation of a repository of consistently produced SDMs of regional- or national-scale information predicting the potential distribution of invasive plant species could provide information to managers in the prioritisation of invasive species management. Here, we present a novel set of not only habitat suitability models for occurrence for 259 manager requested invasive plant species in the contiguous United States (USA), but also habitat suitability models for abundance (≥ 5% cover) and high abundance (≥ 25% cover). These data provide an update to the Invasive Species Habitat Tool (INHABIT; gis.usgs.gov/inhabit). This tool contains information on the majority of invasive plant species in the contiguous USA with sufficient location data for model building. INHABIT provides a canonical set of predicted geographic distributions for invasive plants in the contiguous USA that can aid in the search for new populations of invasive plant species and help create watch lists for emerging invaders. As this tool contains information on nearly all of the most problematic invasive plants in the contiguous USA, it helps in prioritising management strategies by showing which plants are already present or abundant in a land management area and which may become present or abundant in the future.

Soil organic matter interactions along the elevation gradient of the James Ross Island (Antarctica)

Abstract. Around half of the Earth's soil organic carbon (SOC) is presently stored in the Northern Hemisphere permafrost region. In polar permafrost regions, low temperatures particularly inhibit both the production and biodegradation of organic matter. Under such conditions, abiotic factors such as mesoclimate, pedogenic substrate or altitude are thought to be more important for soil development than biological factors. In Antarctica, biological factors are generally underestimated in soil development due to the rare occurrence of higher plants and the short time since deglaciation. In this study, we aim to assess the relationship between SOC and other soil properties related to the pedogenic factors or properties. Nine plots were investigated along the altitudinal gradient from 10 to 320 m in the deglaciated area of James Ross Island (Ulu Peninsula) using a parallel tea-bag decomposition experiment. SOC contents showed a positive correlation with the content of easily extractable glomalin-related soil protein (EE-GRSP; Spearman r=0.733, P=0.031) and the soil buffering capacity (expressed as ΔpH; Spearman r=0.817, P=0.011). The soil-available P was negatively correlated with altitude (Spearman r=-0.711, P=0.032), and the exchangeable Mg was negatively correlated with the rock fragment content (Spearman r=-0.683, P=0.050). No correlation was found between the available mineral nutrients (P, K, Ca and Mg) and SOC or GRSP. This may be a consequence of the inhibition of biologically mediated nutrient cycling in the soil. Therefore, the main factor influencing nutrient availability in these soils does not seem to the biotic environment; rather, the main impact appears to stem from the abiotic environment influencing the mesoclimate (altitude) or the level of weathering (rock content). Incubation in tea bags for 45 d resulted in the consumption and translocation of more labile polyphenolic and water-extractable organic matter, along with changes in the C content (increase of up to +0.53 % or decrease of up to −1.31 % C) and a decrease in the C:N ratio (from 12.5 to 7.1–10.2), probably due to microbial respiration and an increase in the abundance of nitrogen-binding microorganisms. Our findings suggest that one of the main variables influencing the SOC/GRSP content is not the altitude or coarse-fraction content (for which a correlation with SOC/GRSP was not found); rather, we suspect effects from other factors that are difficult to quantify, such as the availability of liquid water.

Health benefits and future research of phytochemicals: a literature review

Phytochemicals are non-nutritive substances found in plant foods that originally contribute significantly to the flavor and color of the foods. These substances are usually classified as polyphenols, terpenes, sulfur-containing compounds, nitrogen containing compounds and others. A large amount studies from last decades demonstrated that these substances have played an immeasurable role in physiological regulation, health care and disease prevention through the exerting actions of antioxidation, anti-inflammation, anti-ageing, anti-virus, anti-cancer, anti-thrombosis, regulating lipid profiles, cardiovascular protection, neuroprotection, immunity regulation and improving metabolic functions. This paper is intended to review the chemistry and biochemistry of phytochemicals as related to classification, chemical structure, their occurrence and biosynthesis in plants, and the biological activities and implications in human health and various diseases. The discussions are focused on important and most recent advances in the above aspects. Furthermore, some future research directions of phytochemicals are set forth in the aspects of the dose-response, the mechanism and targets, the interactions with gut microbiota, the impact on human health and different stages of chronic diseases.

Alien aquatic plants in Poland: Temporal and spatial distribution patterns and the effects of climate change

Distribution of alien aquatic plants in European freshwater ecosystems is still not fully recognized. Little is also known about the impact of climatic factors on the expansion of particular neophyte species in freshwater ecosystems. In this article, we present the first comprehensive assessment of the occurrence of non-native aquatic vascular plants in Poland (CE Europe), with a particular focus on: (1) inventory of the species, (2) temporal and spatial changes in their distribution, and (3) the climate impact on species occurrence and diversity. For this purpose, we collected both published and unpublished data on alien macrophytes occurrence in Poland covering past 70 years. In order to investigate the mechanism of alien aquatic plant expansion, climate data from 24 meteorological stations were analyzed. Redundancy analysis (RDA) was used to analyze the relationship between species composition and microclimate variables. In addition, Generalized Additive Model (GAM) was used to examine the response curves of neophyte species to temperature parameters.In total, we found records of 15 neophytes of alien aquatic plant taxa in Poland, including 14 species and collective taxon of Nymphaea cultivars. The most frequent was Elodea canadensis (over 25,000 records). Excluding this species, we counted more than 300 records of the occurrence of alien aquatic plants, of which three (E. nuttallii, Azolla filiculoides and Lemna turionifera) were the most abundant. Ten species occurred only in isolated sites. In addition, analyses showed a substantial increase in the number of the aquatic neophyte sites in the last 20 years that could be linked with the raised average monthly and yearly air temperatures in Poland.Our results showed a strong relationship between raised average temperatures in Poland and the spread of some species, e.g. Azolla filiculoides, while other species such as Elodea nuttallii and Lemna turionifera expanded irrespectively of this factor. The occurrence of some species (e.g. Vallisneria spiralis, Hygrophila polysperma) was exclusively associated to high thermally altered or thermally contaminated waters, and thus was limited to only a small part of the country. Our results confirm the major role of elevated temperatures (mean annual temperatures and minimum monthly temperatures) and thermally polluted freshwater ecosystems in the distribution of alien aquatic plants.

Macro-Elements in Liquid Fertilization Influence Differently in Occurrence and Growth of Runner Plants in Strawberry Propagation

Macro-Elements in Liquid Fertilization Influence Differently in Occurrence and Growth of Runner Plants in Strawberry Propagation

Baseline Survey of Plant Species Along Salang Road in Afghanistan

The Salang Road, a critical transportation corridor, serves as a vital link connecting the northern and southern parts of Afghanistan. In response to the government's decision to upgrade this road, assessing and documenting the plant species in the region is crucial. This study was conducted to catalog the plant species along the Salang Road, aiming to establish a comprehensive understanding of the area's botanical diversity. Plants were recorded using the quadrate sampling method at 35 sampling points. A transect line was set up at each sampling point, 5 quadrats were established along each line, and the occurrence of plants within the quadrat frame was recorded. Quadrat sizes, determined using the minimal area method, were 10×10 m for trees, 2×5 m for shrubs, and 1 m2 for herbs. Plants were identified with the help of literature and by comparing with the deposited specimen of Kabul University Faculty of Sciences Herbarium (KUFS). Data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel. 135 diverse species, including trees, shrubs, and herbs, representing various ecological niches were documented. These species belong to 46 plant families, and the most abundant ones were Asteraceae, Apiaceae, Rosaceae, Lamiaceae, Fabaceae, and Polygonaceae. The survey additionally examined road construction's impact on plant species' distribution and diversity. The survey provides valuable insights into the Salang corridor area's botanical diversity and ecological significance, serving as a foundational dataset for future environmental conservation and land management efforts. The information obtained from this study can support qualified decision-making and sustainable development practices in the region.

Orthophoto-Based Vegetation Patch Analyses—A New Approach to Assess Segmentation Quality

The following paper focuses on evaluating the quality of image prediction in the context of searching for plants of a single species, using the example of Heracleum sosnowskyi Manden, in a given area. This process involves a simplified classification that ends with a segmentation step. Because of the particular characteristics of environmental data, such as large areas of plant occurrence, significant partitioning of the population, or characteristics of a single individual, the use of standard statistical measures such as Accuracy, the Jaccard Index, or Dice Coefficient does not produce reliable results, as shown later in this study. This issue demonstrates the need for a new method for assessing the betted prediction quality adapted to the unique characteristics of vegetation patch detection. The main aim of this study is to provide such a metric and demonstrate its usefulness in the cases discussed. Our proposed metric introduces two new coefficients, M+ and M−, which, respectively, reward true positive regions and penalise false positive regions, thus providing a more nuanced assessment of segmentation quality. The effectiveness of this metric has been demonstrated in different scenarios focusing on variations in spatial distribution and fragmentation of theoretical vegetation patches, comparing the proposed new method with traditional metrics. The results indicate that our metric offers a more flexible and accurate assessment of segmentation quality, especially in cases involving complex environmental data. This study aims to demonstrate the usefulness and applicability of the metric in real-world vegetation patch detection tasks.

Revisiting Clements and Gleason: Insights from Plant Distributions on Pikes Peak, Clements's Life-Long Study Site.

AbstractHow do species' distributions respond to their environments? This question was at the heart of the Clements-Gleason controversy, ecology's most famous debate. Do species respond to the environment in concerted ways, leading to distinct and cohesive assemblages (the Clementsian paradigm), or do species respond to the environment independently (the Gleasonian paradigm)? Using plant occurrences along the elevation gradient of Pikes Peak (Colorado) as a lens through which to gain insight into Clements's perspectives on the debate, we formally test for community patterns along this gradient using a modern framework unavailable at the time of Clements and Gleason. The Pikes Peak region was Clements's study area for more than 40 years, where he established a research lab and distributed sites along the elevational gradient. His investigations of plant distributions on this mountain likely influenced his views on communities. We found mixed support for the paradigms, with neither the Gleasonian paradigm nor the Clementsian paradigm fully supported. While distributions along the gradient showed evidence of clustering of species range edges, considered to be consistent with the Clementsian paradigm, the pattern was weak, and neither range edges nor species turnover peaked at ecotone elevations, as expected under the Clementsian paradigm. Our results illuminate the Clements-Gleason debate by allowing us to probe issues that complicate conclusively testing the paradigms, such as deciding on how we quantify environmental gradients and determining the appropriate scales for community patterns and processes that might generate them. Revisiting the debate also revealed that Clements's and Gleason's views had more in common than we realize. The debate may be less neatly resolved than we assume from mythos, and it continues to have relevance to basic and applied ecology today, as its legacy has shaped our (still tenuous) notion of ecological communities and the trajectory of our field.

Stigmasterol: An Enigmatic Plant Stress Sterol with Versatile Functions.

Sterols play important structural and regulatory roles in numerous intracellular processes. Unlike animals, plants contain a distinctive and diverse variety of sterols. Recently, information has emerged showing that stigmasterol is a "stress sterol". Stigmasterol is synthesized via the mevalonate biosynthesis pathway and has structural similarity to β-sitosterol but differs in the presence of a trans-oriented double bond in the side chain. In plants, the accumulation of stigmasterol has been observed in response to various stresses. However, the precise ways that stigmasterol is involved in the stress responses of plants remain unclear. This comprehensive review provides an update on the biology of stigmasterol, particularly the physicochemical properties of this ethylsterol, its biosynthesis, and its occurrence in higher plants and extremophilic organisms, e.g., mosses and lichens. Special emphasis is given to the evolutionary aspects of stigmasterol biosynthesis, particularly the variations in the gene structure of C22-sterol desaturase, which catalyzes the formation of stigmasterol from β-sitosterol, in a diversity of evolutionarily distant organisms. The roles of stigmasterol in the tolerance of plants to hostile environments and the prospects for its biomedical applications are also discussed. Taken together, the available data suggest that stigmasterol plays important roles in plant metabolism, although in some aspects, it remains an enigmatic compound.

Centering Amah Mutsun voices in the analysis of a culturally important, fire-managed coastal grassland.

Indigenous communities throughout California, USA, are increasingly advocating for and practicing cultural fire stewardship, leading to a host of social, cultural, and ecological benefits. Simultaneously, state agencies are recognizing the importance of controlled burning and cultural fire as a means of reducing the risk of severe wildfire while benefiting fire-adapted ecosystems. However, much of the current research on the impacts of controlled burning ignores the cultural importance of these ecosystems, and risks further marginalizing Indigenous knowledge systems. Our work adds a critical Indigenous perspective to the study of controlled burning in California's unique coastal grasslands, one of the most biodiverse and endangered ecosystems in the country. In this study, we partnered with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band to investigate how the abundance and occurrence of shrubs, cultural plants, and invasive plants differed among three adjacent coastal grasslands with varying fire histories. These three sites are emblematic of the state's diverging approaches to grassland management: fire suppression, fire suppression followed by wildfire, and an exceedingly rare example of a grassland that has been repeatedly burned approximately every 2 years for more than 30 years. We found that Danthonia californica was significantly more abundant on the burned sites, whereas all included shrub species (Baccharis pilularis, Frangula californica, and Rubus ursinus) were significantly more abundant on the site with no recorded fire, results that have important implications for future cultural revitalization efforts and the loss of coastal grasslands to shrub encroachment. In addition to conducting a culturally relevant vegetation survey, we used Sentinel-2 satellite imagery to compare the relative severities of the two most recent fire events within the study area. Critically, we used interviews with Amah Mutsun tribal members to contextualize the results of our vegetation survey and remote sensing analysis, and to investigate how cultural burning contrasts from typical Western fire management approaches in this region. Our study is a novel example of how interviews, field data, and satellite imagery can be combined to gain a deeper ecological and cultural understanding of fire in California's endangered coastal grasslands.

Macrophenological dynamics from citizen science plant occurrence data

Abstract Phenological shifts across plant species is a powerful indicator to quantify the effects of climate change. Today, mobile applications with automated species identification open new possibilities for phenological monitoring across space and time. Here, we introduce an innovative spatio‐temporal machine learning methodology that harnesses such crowd‐sourced data to quantify phenological dynamics across taxa, space and time. Our algorithm links individual phenological responses across thousands of species and geographical locations, using a similarity measure. The analysis draws on nearly ten million plant observations collected through the AI‐based plant identification app Flora Incognita in Germany from 2018 to 2021. Our method quantifies changes in synchronisation across the annual cycle. During the growing season, synchronised behaviour can be encoded by a few characteristic macrophenological patterns. Nonlinear spatio‐temporal changes of these patterns can be efficiently quantified using a data compressibility measure. Outside the growing season, the phenological synchronisation diminishes introducing noise into the patterns. Despite biases and uncertainties associated with crowd‐sourced data, for example due to human data collection behaviour, our study demonstrates the feasibility of deriving meaningful indicators for monitoring plant macrophenology from individual plant observations. As crowd‐sourced databases continue to expand, our approach holds promise to study climate‐induced phenological shifts and feedback loops.

Green infrastructure design for the containment of biological invasions. Insights from a peri-urban case study in Rome, Italy

Secondary shrublands and transitional woodland/shrub formations are recognised to be particularly susceptible to plant invasions, one of the main global threats to biodiversity, especially in dynamic peri-urban landscapes. Urban fringes are in fact often the place for the sprawl of artificial surfaces, fragmentation of habitats, and complex land transitions (including both agriculture intensification and abandonment), which in turn increase propagule pressure of exotic species over residual semi-natural ecosystems. Within this framework, the present study was aimed at analysing i) how landscape composition and configuration affect the richness of woody exotic species in shrubland and transitional woodland/shrub patches, and ii) how this threat can be addressed by means of green infrastructure design in a peri-urban case study (Metropolitan City of Rome, Italy). Accordingly, the occurrence of exotic plants was recorded with field surveys and then integrated with landscape analyses, both at patch level and over a 250 m buffer area around each patch. Thus, the effect of landscape features on exotic plant richness was investigated with Generalised Linear Models, and the best model identified (pseudo R-square = 0.62) for inferring invasibility of shrublands throughout the study area. Finally, a Green Infrastructure (GI) to contain biological invasion was planned, based on inferred priority sites for intervention and respective, site-tailored, actions. The latter included not only the removal of invasive woody alien plants, but also reforestation and planting of native trees for containment of dispersal and subsequent establishment. Even though specifically developed for the study site, and consistent with local government needs, the proposed approach represents a pilot planning process that might be applied to other peri-urban regions for the combined containment of biological invasions and sustainable development of peripheral complex landscapes.

Latitudinal Dispersal of Southern North American Glacial Refugial Plants within Yukon, Canada

This study investigates the distribution of southern North American glacial refugial migrants that have invaded Yukon (Canada) since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), which began about 9500 years ago. The analysis was based on indigenous vascular plant occurrences that were stratified according to 0.33˚ latitudinal bands. Among 90,397 occurrence records, about 37% were postglacial migrants as opposed to former members of the Eastern Beringian flora. Most migrants probably moved northward from LGM refugia in the western U.S. region (Montana-Idaho-Wyoming) and, to a lesser extent, from the midwestern United States, but several were potentially from a Pacific coast refugium in westernmost Washington-Oregon-northern California. Gradients in taxa composition and richness occurred, with Beringian taxa increasing and migrant taxa decreasing at greater latitudes (+3 vs −0.5 taxa per degree, respectively) based on statistically significant regression trends. An interpretation of ordination results based on taxa presence and absence suggests south-to-north migrating plants are strongly influenced by climate. Only half of all Yukon migrant taxa have geographical ranges that extend beyond the latitudinal centre of the territory. Possible constraints on greater dispersal include competition from pre-existing vegetation, colder northward climates, and the presence of the Ogilvie and Wernecke Mountains across the latitudinal centre of the territory. Just over half (24 of 44) of the taxa that occurred in only one latitudinal band were located immediately north of the southern Yukon border, which suggests glacial refugial migrants are still invading Yukon.

Grab to fill the gap: key factors influencing Reynoutria japonica germination and seedling establishment in the secondary distribution range

Reynoutria japonica (Japanese knotweed) is a highly invasive female plant that primarily reproduces through vegetative regeneration during secondary distribution. Despite producing a substantial number of viable hybrid seeds, the occurrence of seedlings and young plants in the wild remains rare; the reasons for this rarity are unclear. Environmental intolerance and chromosomal anomalies during hybridisation can impede seedling development. This study evaluates the combined impact of these factors by examining substrate, temperature, and light effects on germination, as well as assessing seedling genome sizes and viability. Seeds were cultivated in both natural and controlled environments to manage external influences. Flow cytometry was employed to evaluate chromosomal arrangements. The final germination was notably high at 99%, and 68% of seedlings thrived under controlled conditions, emphasising hybrid seedling viability regardless of highly polyploid levels ranging from pentaploid to aneuploid (2C DNA genome size from 5.17 to 11.95 pg). Thus, it is evident that seeds can germinate and produce vital seedlings despite various chromosomal sets. Even fluctuating temperatures and type of substrate do not limit seed germination. However, these results were obtained under laboratory conditions, with seeds and seedlings receiving regular irrigation. A significant seedling mortality rate (99%) was observed in the field experiment, and the final germination was also low there (15%). Observations suggest that water stress might be the cause of this mortality. Further research on water stress is necessary because it could be the primary factor limiting the successful generative spread of the knotweeds.

Uncovering the effect of waterlogging stress on plant microbiome and disease development: current knowledge and future perspectives.

Waterlogging is a constant threat to crop productivity and ecological biodiversity. Plants face multiple challenges during waterlogging stress like metabolic reprogramming, hypoxia, nutritional depletion, reduction in gaseous exchange, pH modifications, microbiome alterations and disease promotion all of which threaten plants survival. Due to global warming and climatic change, the occurrence, frequency and severity of flooding has dramatically increased posing a severe threat to food security. Thus, developing innovative crop management technologies is critical for ensuring food security under changing climatic conditions. At present, the top priority among scientists is to find nature-based solutions to tackle abiotic or biotic stressors in sustainable agriculture in order to reduce climate change hazards to the environment. In this regard, utilizing plant beneficial microbiome is one of the viable nature based remedial tool for mitigating abiotic stressors like waterlogging. Beneficial microbiota provides plants multifaceted benefits which improves their growth and stress resilience. Plants recruit unique microbial communities to shield themselves against the deleterious effects of biotic and abiotic stress. In comparison to other stressors, there has been limited studies on how waterlogging stress affects plant microbiome structure and their functional traits. Therefore, it is important to understand and explore how waterlogging alters plant microbiome structure and its implications on plant survival. Here, we discussed the effect of waterlogging stress in plants and its microbiome. We also highlighted how waterlogging stress promotes pathogen occurrence and disease development in plants. Finally, we highlight the knowledge gaps and areas for future research directions on unwiring how waterlogging affects plant microbiome and its functional traits. This will pave the way for identifying resilient microbiota that can be engineered to promote their positive interactions with plants during waterlogging stress.

Satellitengestützte Gewinnung pflanzlicher Rohstoffe für die Herstellung hochwertiger pharmazeutischer Produkte

AbstractFor the worldwide sourcing of medicinal plants as a high-quality raw material for pharmaceutical processing, the use of satellite data and drones is of great importance for quality assurance, risk assessment and risk mitigation, for finding new raw material occurrences, research and development and as part of GACP-compliant documentation and audits.In many cases, recording the exact location data using GPS provides the basis for subsequent evaluations and assessments of risks to the product and the environment. In audits, they provide exact and quickly available documentation of the production site or region for wild collection, the location of primary processing and the transportation routes of the sensitive fresh matter for subsequent drying.Screenings are also based on this method and allow geographical “mapping” in order to identify certain characteristics of populations or individual plants, e. g., as eco- or chemotypes. These can be propagated and cultivated as “elite crops” for specific requirements.Remote sensing satellite images visualize structures, colours and plant species in natural habitats and enable the identification of medicinal plant occurrences in unknown areas. Recognition requires training with data that must be obtained on site.

Alien plant species distribution in Romania: a nationwide survey following the implementation of the EU Regulation on Invasive Alien Species.

Biological invasions pose an increasing risk to nature, social security and the economy, being ranked amongst the top five threats to biodiversity. Managing alien and invasive species is a priority for the European Union, as outlined in the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Alien plant species are acknowledged to impact the economy and biodiversity; thus, analysing the distribution of such species provides valuable inputs for the management and decision-making processes. The database presented in the current study is the first consolidated checklist of alien plant species that are present in Romania, both of European Union concern and of national interest. This database complements a prior published distribution, based only on records from literature, bringing new information regarding the occurrence of alien plants in Romania, as revealed by a nationwide field survey. We consider this database a valuable instrument for managing biological invasions at both national and regional levels, as it can be utilised in further research studies and in drafting management and action plans, assisting stakeholders in making informed decisions and implementing management actions. We present the results of the first nationwide survey of alien plant species in Romania, conducted between 2019 and 2022, in the framework of a national project coordinated by the Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests and the University of Bucharest. The present database complements and updates the database published by Sirbu et. al (2022), which included occurrence records published until 2019. The new database includes 98323 occurrence records for 396 alien plant species in 77 families, with most species belonging to the Asteraceae family. One alien plant species in our database, the black locust Robiniapseudoacacia L., had more than 10,000 occurrence records. The distribution database also includes information on newly-reported invasive alien plant species of European Union concern in Romania (i.e. the floating primrose-willow Ludwigiapeploides (Kunth) P.H.Raven) and documents the presence of plants in 44 additional families compared to Sirbu et al. (2022). Each entry includes information on species taxonomy, location, year, person who recorded and identified the alien plant, geographical coordinates and taxon rank.