Tag: vertical grow system

Several of the cache pits were made entirely of flat slabs of quartz diorite that evidently had fallen from the ceiling of the shelter. In each case, these tabular rocks were carefully overlapped to make as tight a construction as possible .Other slab-lined cache pits differed in that the rocks were placed in a mosaic fashion rather than overlapping. No small chinking rocks were noted in any of these features. One of these was constructed globular, as opposed to tabular, form. In some cases, smaller rocks were used to chink spaces between the larger rocks . One cache pit , constructed of irregularly shaped rocks, lacked any small rocks or predominantly of tabular rocks and was placed such that two massive boulders were part of the overall construction. Incorporated into its construction were two metate fragments, both of granitic material. The fill of the feature consisted of miscellaneous rocks and soil, a mano and two mano fragments, and one complete unifacial block metate. Some ofthe milling implements or other rocks from the fill may have been used in its construction. The majority of the cache pits excavated at Indian Hill Rock shelter were constructed of medium- to large-sized rocks of overall chinking, and there were large spaces between the rocks. Some rocks may have been taken from this feature and reused in the construction of the overlapping cache pit or for another purpose. One of the rocks used in the feature is a bifacial block metate; also present was a rock with a patch of red hematite paint. Feature 19 was a well-constructed rock-Hned basin. It was fairly shallow and apparently represented the floor of a cache pit. Construction material consisted of about 40 rocks,hydroponic vertical garden including one core-hammerstone, nine block metate fragments of granitic material , and one unifacial mano.

This feature was unique among the cache pits in that it contained so many large metate fragments. The situation at Indian Hill Rock shelter, then, is one in which rock-lined cache pits were built in sandy matrix using either flat slabs or other rocks, including metate fragments. Care was taken in some of the cache pits to overlap the slabs used in their construction, and in others to chink interstices between rocks. This suggests attempts to make the structures rodent-proof. We therefore conclude that bags or baskets of foodstuffs, rather than equipment, most likely were stored in these cache pits. We are inclined to classify these cache pits as group specific, permanent furnishings at Indian Hill Rock shelter. Each cache pit may have been used many times, each time carefully roofed over, perhaps with bunch grass to keep the sand out, and then rocks, and concealed beneath the sand that formed the floor of the shelter. Concealment may have been considered important in the event other groups used the shelter. We thus interpret the cache pits as more or less “permanent” site furnishings of whatever group used Indian HiU Rock shelter, but not publicly available site furniture. In all cases the contents of the cache pits had been removed in antiquity. In most cases, only the rock-paved floors of the cache pits remained intact, and most of the rocks that formed the walls were lacking. In some cases large rocks all but filled the cache pits, apparently having been discarded there upon abandonment of the cache. The roofing rocks and wall rocks, which may have extended to near the former ground surface, must have been pulled up out of the site matrix and used elsewhere for the same or another purpose. The ethnographic description of “pulling up” the site furniture , or “site furnishings,” in this case using it elsewhere at the site for the same or for another purpose, appears to describe the situation at Indian Hill Rock shelter. The levels from which cache pits are believed to have been dug have few or no ceramic sherds, but ceramics are common in overlying levels.

This distribution leads to the conclusion that ceramic ollas may have replaced rock-lined cache pits after the inception of ceramic technology in the region. Ollas may have been buried in the same sheltered sites that formerly contained rock lined cache pits. Rock-lined cache pits are reported from two sites, Chapman Rock shelter No. 1 and Resurrection Shelter . Four rock lined cache pits were excavated at Chapman Rock shelter No. 1. These cache pits were lined with basalt slabs, and metates were used in the construction of two of them. They ranged from ca. 75 to 95 cm. in diameter and from 45 to 60 cm. in depth. Two of these cache pits contained historic artifacts ; the third was built from a comparable level below the surface . Linings in these cache pits included such material as bunch grass; buckwheat plant parts, Joshua tree fiber, tule matting, and twined basketry. The fourth cache pit possibly may be older, as it was built far below the others, at about 1.2 m. below the present surface. This cache pit was not lined, but contained debitage, a small biface, a slate pendant fragment, a basalt mano, a bone bead, pinyon hulls, and twined basketry. A large, rock-lined cache pit was partially exposed during test excavations at Resurrection Shelter on the eastern slope of the Coso Range near Darwin Wash. The maximum diameter of this feature is estimated to be about 2 m., the depth about 40 cm. It was constructed of large, blocky rocks. None of these appeared to be metates, nor was any chinking with smaller rocks noted. The pit was lined with alternate layers of bunch grass plants and Joshua treebark. A covering of rocks was not discernible, but a large pile of rocks just inside the entrance of the shelter and next to this cache pit once may have covered it. Artifacts in and around the cache pit include basket fragments, a remnant of a fiber brush, fiber cordage, pinyon nut shells, fiber cordage wrapped with strips of skin, and painted reed fragments . The shelter is very small, and it may have been used only for storage. Some or all of the artifacts could have found their way into the cache when opened. Since pinyon trees grow several kilometers away at higher elevations, the nut shells apparently did not get into the cache pit accidentally. The available evidence suggests the cache served for storage of pine nuts rather than equipment. A detailed report by the investigators is in progress, and radiocarbon analyses are planned for selected materials from this cache pit .

Insufficient information is available to make a determination of the organizational strategy of the people that built the cache pits in the Coso Range. Ethnographically, the region was occupied by Panamint Shoshoni, who shifted from a dispersed forager strategy during the spring and summer to a clustered collector strategy during the fall and winter. Crown gall of grapevine reduces the grape yield by 20% to 40% and trunk diameter approximately by 9%, compared to uninfected healthy grapevines . The causal agent of the grapevine crown gall, Agrobacterium vitis, is a different biovar from other Agrobacterium spp. because it can induce a grapevine specific crown gall . A. vitis has host specificity-related genes, such as pehA, which encodes polygalacturonase that is hypothesized to facilitate A. vitis attachment and systemic colonization on susceptible grapevine tissues . Another host specificity-related gene function is tartrate utilization, and the host specificity is explained by the use of tartaric acid from specific organic acids in grapevines . Crown gall disease is one of the difficult diseases to eradicate by chemicals in vineyards. As a strategy to prevent crown gall disease without chemical sprays, vertical vegetable tower the use of resistance plant cultivars and antagonistic microbial species have been developed. Some grapevine species, mostly Vitis vinifera, are susceptible to crown gall disease, and thus, root stocks from resistant species or crossed seedlings are used by many vineyards to prevent crown gall disease on the scions of the susceptible grapevine cultivars . Another prevention strategy is the use of a non-tumorigenic A. vitis strain as host-specific biological control of grapevine crown gall, in which its pretreatment inhibits transformation by tumorigenic A. vitis strains on the grapevine, leading to the inhibition of crown gall induction . Recently, various platforms have been used to attempt to identify disease resistance-related metabolites in grapevine, including nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and liquid chromatography mass spectrometry . However, when using gas chromatography mass spectrometry , extracted metabolite-profiling data can annotate information from the metabolite libraries . Derivatization techniques are required to process GC-MS metabolite profiling . Silylation is the most suitable derivatization method for non-volatile metabolites, such as hydroxyl and amino compounds . One silylation agent, Nmethyl-N–trifluoro-acetamide , has been used to reveal the whole range of metabolites in plants . However, the highest advantages of GCMS analysis in metabolomics are noted as well-organized stable protocols from sampling to data analysis, covering relatively a broad range of compound classes .

Principal component analysis is an unsupervised method that attempts to create a model of the data without a priori information, which is able to provide an overview of the whole metabolite profile and find the differential metabolite profiling within the group using a qualitative analysis . Projections of latent structures analysis is a supervised analytical method that enhances the separation between groups, combining variable importance for projection scores to obtain a proper cutoff value and increase its performance . Orthogonal projections of latent structures analysis add a single component to the PLS analysis as a predictor of the model, and the other components describe the variation orthogonal to the first predictive component . OPLS discriminant analysis provides useful information about putative biomarkers using an S-plot that combines the covariation and correlation from the model in a scatter plot . The VIP score in PLS-DA and correlation value in OPLS-DA provide cutoff values for finding significant metabolites. This experimental method using GC-MS and multivariate data analysis can identify new aspects of pathogenicity-related metabolites. Genetic, physiological and morphological changes of the host plant to the infection of Agrobacterium species and in the crown gall development have been well documented in relation to plant responses to the tumorigenic bacterium before T-DNA transfer and during gall development . However, relatively little has been studied on those changes occurring in the non-tumorigenic plant tissues that have been influenced by the disease development , which may broaden the holistic understandings of plant responses to the crown gall pathogen infection and disease development. This may enhance their practical applicability in the disease control; e.g., use of crown gall-resistant root stocks. Therefore, in the present study, we examined metabolite profiling in the intermodal tissues of grapevine species in relation to plant responses to the crown gall development in grapevines induced by the infection of A. vitis using GC-MS and statistical multivariate data analysis. Grapevines used in our study were obtained from the National Clonal Germplasm Repository . For Vitis spp., 11 to 22 green shoot cuttings were collected from NCGR fields in June 2015 and placed in a perlite bed for rooting at 25o C with mist for one month. The green shoot cuttings with root systems were transferred to a pot with bed soil for pathogen inoculation test. The pathogen, kindly provided by Dr. Burr, Cornell University, was A. vitis. K305. The bacterium was cultured on potato-dextrose agar  at 25o C for three days. The bacterial cultures grown on PDA were collected by the agar surface scratching in sterile distilled water , and the population density was examined by dilution plate method , which was diluted with SDW to make a bacterial suspension with a concentration of 109 colony-forming units ml–1. For inoculation, a wound was made in the internode of the green shoot using a 2-mm-day drill and 10 µl of the bacterial suspension was injected into the wound using a micropipette. After inoculation, the wound site was immediately wrapped with sealing film and the green shoot cuttings were grown at 25o C in a greenhouse. Symptom development was examined every other day after inoculation throughout the experimental period. The GC-MS system consisting of a gas chromatograph and mass detector was used for GC-MS analysis of the metabolites extracted from the tissue samples.

The Avalon Green Alley project in south Los Angeles is designed to allow water to percolate into the soil and recharge the water table . Beneath the permeable pavement of the green alley, catch basins store storm water temporarily where it can be bio-remediated before flowing into surrounding soil. Scanlon et al. describe three categories of methods: physical techniques such as measuring flows , tracer techniques which include the use of chemical, isotopic, or historical tracers , and numerical modeling techniques . Challenges still exist such as those posed by spatial and temporal variability , but there are efforts to address them. For example, Tubau et al. developed a temporally explicit model for quantifying groundwater recharge. The value of groundwater recharge can be calculated using various methods; the most appropriate is dependent on the end-use of water. For example, in 2010, California withdrew 12,700 million gallons of groundwater per day of which approximately 22.2% was used for domestic purposes . The value of groundwater recharge can therefore be associated with the price of water to consumers. Replacement costs can also be used to assign a value to groundwater recharge. Artificial groundwater recharge is the spread of water on land to increase infiltration or the injection of water directly into the aquifer . These actions have associated costs and can be used to estimate a value for the same service performed by NTS.As storm water runoff flows over urban surfaces, it can acquire contaminants such as suspended solids, heavy metals, nutrients, and pathogens . Because southern California receives little precipitation, it allows for the build-up of contaminants and results in the “first flush” phenomenon: elevated levels of storm water pollution at the beginning of storm events . These contaminants can then enter larger bodies of water and degrade the local environment . Many highly urban areas,vertical hydroponics such as Los Angeles County, are coastal which can exacerbate this issue of water quality because storm water runoff can drain directly into the ocean with little opportunity for treatment.

There is a range of common storm water runoff pollutants. Industrial processes and traffic produce copper, lead, and zinc . Heavy metals can persist in the environment and accumulate in sediment, plants, and animals, leading to the degradation of environmental and human health . Major contributors to nutrient pollution are fertilizers, sewage, and erosion . The input of excess nutrients into streams, lakes, and the ocean can cause degradation of habitat and changes in community structure. Eutrophication can lead to harmful algal blooms, hypoxia, and anoxia, which can have cascading effects on the local ecosystem . Harmful organics from herbicides, pharmaceuticals, and industrial processes can be found in urban storm water runoff and be detrimental to biology . Pathogens also pose a risk to human health through exposure . Lim et al. found that captured storm water can be used for toilet-flushing with acceptable risk, but it does not meet required standards for showering and food-crop irrigation. Beach closures and advisories are often the result of bacteria levels exceeding water quality standards . In addition to the threat to human health, the resulting closures have associated economic costs, e.g. less use of parking lots, restaurants, and shopping . NTS remove contaminants through several pathways. Physical filtration removes debris and suspended solids . While this process may lead to clogging, and subsequent deterioration of bio-remediation functions, informed NTS design, such as plant selection, can help maintain infiltration capacity .A significant portion of bio-remediation in these systems is performed by soil microbial communities that can be stimulated by moisture . NTS can prevent contaminants from traveling further to pollute local bodies of water, but they can also concentrate pollutants in plants and filter media . These concentrated contaminants can leach into surrounding soils, e.g. due to lower oxygen levels that increase metal solubility. As a result, some maintenance is likely required in order to prevent build up and transport of contaminants into the environment. Contaminant removal may be the most well-studied service provided by NTS. Figure 5.3 shows examples of systems installed to remove debris and contaminants from runoff. The Grand Boulevard tree wells consists of seven water filtration systems that capture urban runoff from 6.8 acres of residential and commercial area before the water reaches the Santa Monica Bay .

The Filterra™ system utilized on Grand Boulevard has been shown to effectively remove suspended solids, heavy metals, and nutrients, at efficiency ratios ranging from 83-88%, 33-77%, and 9-70% respectively, by comparing pollutant concentrations between inflow and outflow . Removal rates of heavy metals by bio-retention systems can be quite high . Sediment and nutrient removal by NTS have also been found to be relatively high in several laboratory experiments . While these laboratory experiments provide a deep understanding of how NTS may function under specified conditions , in situ studies are also needed to put those laboratory experiments into context. How NTS operate over time is still an open question, both over long and short time scales, as well as how the timing of water quality measurements can affect results . There are many studies that estimate the value of improved water quality using a variety of methods. Contingent valuation, including discrete choice experiments, asks a sample of respondents about their willingness-to-pay for a spectrum of water quality . A production function approach can value improved water quality by comparing the cost of alternative methods for contaminant removal, such as a storm water treatment plant. The appropriate method is dependent on the fate of the storm water and the final ecosystem service it provides, e.g. clean water for drinking or clean water that hosts higher biodiversity.There are efforts to better quantify and value the water services discussed above , but NTS can also provide a range of non-targeted ecosystem services, linked to their utilization of natural structures and functions, and other co-benefits. Filter media and plant communities, which increase infiltration and remove contaminants, host biodiversity which contributes to ecological processes that can result in beneficial ecosystem services . These ecosystem services and other co-benefits are not generally considered during the design and assessment of NTS. One unique feature of NTS is that they are human-made, so they can be designed to provide specific benefits, which are discussed here to further expand design options that can enhance variety and value of services that can be provided by NTS.Vegetated NTS act as man-made ecosystems that contain a diversity of plants, animals, and microbes from which ecosystem services can be generated . They provide patches of habitat within an urban landscape, and potentially act as corridors through which organisms can move. This can be important for population connectivity and resilience in a changing environment due to removal of natural habitat, habitat fragmentation, and anthropogenic climate change .

Biodiversity is here loosely defined to encompass plant, animal, and microbial species richness, abundance, and distribution. While NTS biodiversity can be measured using a range of methods , how biodiversity translates into ecosystem services is more complex and will need targeted studies. Plants act as ecosystem engineers in bio-retention systems, influencing both hydrological and ecological features. Vegetation captures precipitation , undergoes evapotranspiration , maintains media porosity with roots, and assimilates pollutants . Plants determine photosynthesis and respiration rates, organic matter in soil, and ultimately, carbon sequestration and storage in NTS . Additionally, plant communities influence microbial and in faunal communities which subsequently impact ecosystem function. Microbial communities are most often assessed in terms of harmful taxa present or as functional groups . Fauna, except in wetland settings, are usually not considered in NTS design,hydroponic vertical farming systems despite their role in facilitating targeted functions and services. Kazemi et al. and Mehring et al. identify common bio-filter taxa, such as Megadrilacea , Enchytraeidae , and Collembola . Earthworms are known to increase water infiltration via burrows , while spring tails can impact plant growth and nutrient cycling . As a result, these soil invertebrates can be considered ecosystem engineers that move and aerate soil, shaping the microbial, floral, and faunal communities from which more ecosystem services can stem. Because urban NTS can receive more water than native ecosystems, they can host elevated biodiversity of local soil invertebrates relative to natural habitats . Higher biodiversity can be beneficial if they enhance service provision, or detrimental if they involve invasive species that disrupt function. The Ballona Freshwater Marsh is reported to have provided breeding and foraging grounds for 217 bird species in 2012 . Wetland bird species are used internationally to designate areas for conservation and, in addition to contributing to wetland biodiversity, provide recreational services . Increases in biodiversity have also been shown to increase human well-being in urban settings . Studies exist on the economic value of biodiversity in urban and engineered settings . These often employ contingent valuation, travel cost analysis, and hedonic property pricing methods to estimate society’s WTP for biodiversity and its conservation. Travel cost analysis equates the value of an amenity with the amount of resources used to enjoy that amenity. Hedonic pricing considers goods as a bundle of attributes that can then be manipulated in order to determine how people value those attributes. In urban areas, Dupras et al. estimated that urban forests in the Greater Montreal area in Canada host biodiversity that creates a value of $2623 2013 CAD per hectare annually. Brander et al. conducted a meta-analysis of wetland biodiversity that resulted in an average value of $17,000 1995 USD per hectare of wetland annually. Biodiversity associated with other human-made ecosystems, such as agricultural land, may also be relevant to constructed NTS .

Carbon dioxide emissions are the largest contributor to anthropogenic climate change , and as a result, climate-regulating services related to carbon , have become increasingly important especially in urban areas that contribute disproportionately to global emissions . NTS plants have the potential to contribute to this effort by converting atmospheric carbon dioxide into biomass through photosynthesis. How long this carbon is subsequently stored is dependent on several factors. While some carbon is quickly rereleased during respiration, some is stored as plant biomass and soil detritic compounds. Turnover rates vary with types of biomass. For example, woody biomass has slower turnover rates than biomass that contains chlorophyll . Turnover rates can also vary with soil moisture , soil oxygenation, soil organic matter , and microbial communities. Some bioretention systems contain saturated or submerged zones, designed to create anaerobic conditions for denitrification , but may also help prevent microbial breakdown of organic matter. Quantifying carbon sequestration and storage would necessitate measurements that include net carbon fluxes , soil and plant carbon density , and biomass turnover rates. This has been done in urban green spaces but not specifically in NTS. Nowak et al. estimated annual carbon sequestration in U.S. urban forests to be 25.6 million tonnes which, at $36 2015 USD per tonne of carbon , has a value of over $900 million 2015 USD annually. On smaller scales, green roofs have also been shown to sequester 375 g per m2 annually, additionally decreasing carbon emissions due to lowered electricity usage for cooling . Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, are currently working on evaluating net greenhouse gas fluxes over different urban landscapes, including NTS, that can potentially be associated with an economic value. In addition to physically storing carbon, increased green space can reduce air and surface temperatures, reducing electricity use and emission of greenhouse gases . The urban heat island effect occurs due to increased air temperature in urban settings, relative to undeveloped areas, as a result of replacing vegetation with pavement . Pavements, such as asphalt and cement, have lower surface albedo than natural vegetation and therefore absorb more heat. Evapotranspiration also contributes to plant regulation of micro-climates by increasing the amount of water in the air for a cooling effect. Additionally, vegetation can provide shade. Even small green spaces can have a significant impact on micro-climate . Factors that affect microclimate regulating ecosystem services include UV intensity, wind, and size of the green space. The value of micro-climate regulation by urban green space can, in many instances, be calculated using avoided costs methods. For example, if a green space makes an area cooler, people may not run their air conditioning as long or intensively.

This would not only require an investment in seed multiplication and breeding, but also a reorientation of farmer attitudes to see groundnuts as a cash crop rather than something grown mainly for household subsistence. Since 1985, communal and resettlement farmers have produced less than 4 500 tons per year compared with an annual total of more than 100 000 tons for commercial growers; in 1999/2000 LSC farmers produced a record harvest equal to nearly 140 000 metric tons. Most soybeans are grown in the high-potential areas of Natural Region II where approximately one third of the area planted on LSC farms is under irrigation. Zimbabwe is self-sufficient in soybean meal and regularly exports cake to South Africa, Zambia and other regional markets. Domestic market outlets for soybeans include use as a high protein cake for stockfeed; a high energy feed for livestock; a source of protein in corn-soy blends; a meat extender; and a direct human food. Large refining companies process more than 90% of Zimbabwe’s soybean harvest using solvent extraction methods that yield about 18% oil. Zimbabwe is not self-sufficient in edible oil, however, and regularly imports about one third of its annual crude oil requirement for domestic refining.13 Although price controls are not imposed on soybeans, it is sometimes difficult to obtain export permits for trade with higher-value international markets. Soybeans are typically grown by most LSC farmers on very large plots in rotation with irrigated winter wheat. This rotation is an important part of many farm systems, not only in terms of the revenue generated,equipment for vertical farming but also because soybeans help maintain soil fertility and offer a good way to share limited irrigation equipment. On the other hand, both soybeans and wheat grow best on heavier soils than those suited to tobacco and many farmers also prefer to cultivate these crops in different sections of their farm depending on soil type.

Most LSC farmers achieve a yield between 2.2 and 2.5 tons per hectare; smallholder yields are around 1.0 tons per hectare when fertiliser is used. The financial indicators for dryland and irrigated soybeans are summarised in Table 21. Compared with all other LSC enterprises, these data show that soybeans are highly unprofitable except for the fact that they are relatively inexpensive to produce and usually grown in large quantities throughout the year. It must also be kept in mind that soybeans are normally grown in rotation with irrigated wheat, which is highly profitable and can easily offset the net losses shown below. With high input management, the gross profits from dryland and irrigated soybeans are reasonably attractive, but still only sufficient to finance 6% to 8% of the preharvest cash costs for a single hectare of dryland flue-cured tobacco respectively. In terms of labour requirements, LSC soybeans are the least labour intensive crop analysed and rarely demand additional casual workers. Although relatively few smallholder farmers grow soybeans, a quantitative analysis was carried out to assess the overall viability of this enterprise. Efforts were made a few years ago to promote soybeans as a cash crop among smallholder farmers through a seed distribution program. However, most of the harvest was retained for home consumption and there has been little work to support smallholder soybeans since. The smallholder soybeans results are summarised in Table 22.These data show that soybeans are one of the least expensive crop options available to smallholder farmers. On the other hand, the estimated gross and net profits are also very low and all other enterprises offer a potential for greater farmer income. In interpreting these results, however, it should be noted that that the daily returns to family labour are higher than for any other crop that does not require additional hired workers.

The returns would be even greater if measured by the crop’s imputed food security value, suggesting that soybeans may be an especially good food security choice for households with a shortage of active workers. As a cash enterprise, however, smallholder farmers do not have the capacity to grow soybeans in large quantities and so are unable to achieve the same economies of scale that help to justify LSC production. LSC farmers grow virtually all the wheat produced in Zimbabwe as an irrigated winter crop. Total production is normally between 225 000 and 250 000 metric tons from an area of about 50 000 hectares. Zimbabwe is a net importer of wheat, but still exports several thousand tons annually to Zambia, Malawi and other regional buyers. Very little wheat is traded with South Africa, however, since farmers in that country benefit from production and export subsidies with which Zimbabwe cannot compete. In this respect, there has been some recent debate over the efficiency of growing wheat in Zimbabwe since high irrigation costs make domestic production expensive compared with other world producers. Once transportation costs are taken into account, however, it is generally acknowledged the costs of local production are lower than import parity. Zimbabwe also enjoys a competitive edge in other regional markets like Zambia where production costs are even higher. Total domestic demand is around 400 000 metric tons per year. Wheat has been an important catalyst for the development irrigation in Zimbabwe and is a central part of most LSC farm systems. The crop was mainly introduced during the 1970s as part of the strategy to cope with international sanctions imposed on what was then Rhodesia. A revolving fund was established specifically to help LSC farmers invest in the irrigation equipment needed for wheat. Although farmers were obliged to grow wheat as part of this scheme, they quickly started to use the new equipment for other crops as well including irrigated tobacco groundnuts, soybeans and maize.

Wheat grows best on relatively heavy soils and is typically planted in rotation with rain fed soybeans. Although not ideal complements in terms of soil type, a typical rotation for many LSC farmers is to follow flue-cured tobacco by irrigated winter wheat and then smaller plots of soybeans, groundnuts and maize in the next rainy season. This section considers the costs and returns for three non-traditional crops: coffee, paprika and marigold.14 Horticultural exports including supermarket vegetables and roses are considered separately in the next section. As a group, the crops covered here all have the potential to grow well in tobacco areas and are indicative of some of the diversification opportunities available in Zimbabwe. The costs of production for these crops are generally higher than for most traditional field crops,vertical farming systems but lower than for tobacco and horticultural exports. In most cases, tobacco still provides more income on a per hectare basis, but the returns from nontraditional crops are attractive in their own right and could perhaps even substitute for tobacco as the foundation of a highly profitable farm system. Specific production and marketing issues for each crop are discussed below. 114. Beyond the crops covered here, many other niche products also offer diversification potential for smallholder and LSC farmers including mushrooms, flower seeds, game ranching, medicinal plants and spices. These enterprises are all being pursued on a limited basis in Zimbabwe and can provide an important source of farm income and improved cash flow. Compared with tobacco, however, the market outlets for these products are more limited and each farmer must find the right mix of enterprises that works best for them. A good area for further analysis would be to calculate production budgets and farm models based on these and other diversification options.Citrus crops including oranges, grapefruit and lemons, for example, are an especially important diversification option with more than 88 000 hectares of permanent orchards planted on LSC farms as of 1999. Unfortunately, reliable data on the costs of production for these crops were not available and it would be misleading to comment on their costs and profitability. Anecdotal evidence, however, suggests that the returns may not be very high and one farmer with a fifty-hectare orchard complained of serious marketing problems and large net losses. One of the problems this grower identified with citrus is that these crops are perishable and so cannot be stored for a long time to take advantage of seasonal price variations. On the other hand, this grower also pointed out that citrus can be sold for foreign exchange and so can be justified as part of the farm system even at a net loss. Citrus trees take about three to four years to produce their first fly crop and only reach full maturity after ten years.

Game ranching on LSC farms is another popular diversification activity. In tobacco areas, wildlife ranching began in the mid-1970s mainly as a hobby on unused land not suited for intensive cropping. Since then, the wildlife sector has developed into a fully integrated part of many farm systems with production for hunting and photographic safaris; game meat; and sale of live animals to other ranches or private tourist parks. Although wildlife could never substitute for intensive cropping in high potential areas, game management has become an important source of supplemental income and can easily generate an income of several thousand USD annually. Establishment costs include game fencing, animal stock, watering points plus road construction and guest cottages for safari visitors. As an industry that caters primarily to overseas tourists, the wildlife sector has been especially hard hit by recent instability in Zimbabwe. Large-scale commercial farmers. A summary of key production costs for the three non-traditional LSC crops covered here is given in Table 24. Compared with tobacco, each non-traditional crop costs about the same or less than tobacco except for long-season paprika. Marigold costs about the same as many traditional field crops whereas coffee and paprika are among the most expensive enterprises analysed because of high irrigation requirements and intensive use of fertilisers and agrochemicals. These 3 crops all demand less labour than tobacco, but still have a high overall wage bill and generate anywhere from 50 to 250 days casual employment per hectare plus additional jobs in downstream processing. Because coffee and paprika are grown to fairly uniform standards only two management levels have been analysed for these crops; marigold is relatively new to Zimbabwe and just one management level is considered in this case. Importantly, the results above clearly show that gross and net profits from other crops can rival and even surpass tobacco on LSC farms. Although the returns from coffee are rather low with current prices, farmer profits improve significantly at values closer to the long-term average. The returns from paprika are also very attractive, especially when grown as a long-season crop with high input management. Although limited world demand means that paprika prices are highly sensitive to production increases, inclusion of this crop as part of a mixed farm system has the potential to reduce growers’ dependence on tobacco. Estimated profits for marigold are considerably lower than for coffee and paprika, but still rival the income that can be earned from most traditional crops including wheat, cotton, groundnuts and maize consumed on-farm. 120. Smallholder farmers. Due to various barriers including high production costs, lack of extension support, uncertain returns and special infrastructure requirements, smallholder farmers have fewer opportunities to grow and market non-traditional cash crops than LSC farmers. Previous efforts to promote coffee and paprika among smallholder growers have been uneven at best and certainly not on a scale needed to attract broad segments of the tobacco growing population away from this crop. Smallholder coffee is perhaps the best developed, but production has been based entirely in the Eastern Highlands and there has been no work to develop the type of communal irrigation and pulping facilities needed to support farmers in flue-cured tobacco areas. Even as an alternative to burley tobacco grown in the Eastern Highlands, much work is still needed to develop appropriate management skills and infrastructure. As yet, marigold has not been promoted to any great extent as a smallholder crop but is likely to do well on communal lands since it is not fastidious to soil type or moisture.Key production costs for non-traditional smallholder crops are summarised in Table 26.Although paprika looks expensive in its own right, and certainly costs more than coffee, total variable costs are still only about 57% of those for flue-cured tobacco at each corresponding management level.

An international LCA conference is held every two to three years that focuses on sustainable transport infrastructure, in particular pavement and hardscape. The most recent of these conferences was held in Champaign, Illinois in 2017 . This symposium was a continuation of earlier conferences and workshops beginning with the Pavement LCA workshop held in Davis, California in 2010 ; the RILEM Symposium on LCA for Construction Materials held in Nantes, France in 2012 ; and the Pavement LCA Symposium held in Davis, California in 2014 . These conferences act as a platform to bring together international construction material industries, contractors, consultants, researchers, academia and the transport administrations . One of the major aims of these conferences is to implement life cycle thinking for transport infrastructures and promulgating the use of quantitative environmental assessment methods that help in decision support, such as the LCA. The most recent conference focused on data collection, inventory development, and data quality. Data essential for the UM-LCA approach is rapidly being improved through the work of various collaborators in industry and government, many of whom come together semi-annually through the Federal Highway Administration Sustainable Pavement Task Group . A framework has been developed for pavement LCA which can easily be extended to all urban hardscapes . Data availability for urban hardscape materials is becoming more widely available through several efforts being organized by consortia of government, industry and academia, such as the Federal LCA Commons ,vertical tower planter and the other efforts .Climate change is a pressing problem that cities will have to deal with and adapt to, but they have often not started making changes in infrastructure engineering and management.

Reasons for this delay include short term priorities driving design and planning, and inefficient use or omission of climate change data in infrastructure planning processes . A group of academics and transportation practitioners who are involved in the Infrastructure and Climate network in the northeastern region of the United States has addressed the systematic incorporation of climate change in infrastructure engineering and has worked to connect climate experts to front-line transportation infrastructure managers and designers. This approach provides a model for further improvement of communication between climate change modelers and infrastructure managers, particularly with regard to converting climate change predictions into actionable data for engineers. Permeable pavement is one approach to using hardscape for the multiple functions of transportation, storm water quality management, groundwater recharge and flood control, but it has been used in a small fraction of the potential places where it might provide multifunctional benefits. In early 2017, the University of California Pavement Research Center and the National Center for Sustainable Transportation , working with the Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute , identified gaps in knowledge and other barriers to wider implementation that were perceived to be holding back the full potential for deployment of pavements that can simultaneously solve transportation, storm water quality, and flood control problems. A workshop was organized in November 2017 based on those discussions with the goal of identifying knowledge, information, and communication barriers to adoption of permeable pavement of all types, and creation of a road map to address and overcome them. The workshop brought together a diverse group of stakeholders from the planning, storm water quality, flood control, and pavement communities to listen to presentations, exchange and discuss unanswered questions identified by the group, and then to discuss a proposed road map to fill the gaps in knowledge, processes, and guidance. Some of the major findings in the final report from the workshop regarding the institutional and informational obstacles to making use of permeable pavement more acceptable to designers echo the principles identified by Chester et al. for improving the resiliency of flood control infrastructure.

These include recognition of the benefits of designing decentralized, autonomous infrastructure systems, such as making major portions of urban paved areas permeable instead of, or in addition to, building centralized storm water conveyance and storage systems; and, encouraging communication and collaboration that transcend disciplinary barriers rather than involving multiple, but distinct disciplinary perspectives. In this case, difficulties in identifying roles and relationships between urban transportation departments, storm water regulatory agencies, and flood control agencies in determining responsibility for maintaining the multi-functionality of permeable pavements emerged as an obstacle. Technical issues were also identified by the workshop, as well as the need for better cost and performance data. A presentation at a workshop by Haselbach discussed how the risk of flood damage increases in downstream cities built along rivers in long flood plains, such as those along rivers in Texas, when upstream cities expand their urban hardscape and flood conveyance to rapidly shed water. Thus, there is increased risk of flooding in each city as the area covered by hardscape increases, and that risk cascades and is multiplied significantly for downstream cities as upstream systems release water to protect the integrity of their own infrastructure and local urban areas. In addition to the review of the published literature, meetings were held with researchers at UC Los Angeles , UC Davis and the University of Southern California to review the concept for the UM-LCA framework presented in this white paper and potential data sources. The consulted experts included Stephanie Pincetl and Eric Fournier at UCLA, Jay Lund and Jon Herman at UCD and George Ban-Weiss at USC. As an example of data collection, Pincetl and Fournier pointed to the LCA framework and tool called City Road Network LCA developed for the roadway system in Los Angeles and used by Fraser and Chester and other studies. The data tracks the location of streets and highways over time and was developed in a GIS environment.

To complement this source of information for hardscape, potential data sources for soil permeability information were identified to assess where permeable hardscape could successfully be used to infiltrate water into the soil versus areas where permeable hardscape can only store water for later discharge. The SSURGO and STATSGO spatial data layers from the National Resources Conservation Service of the U.S.Information from the Permeable Pavement Road Map Workshop indicated that the scale of these maps is not sufficiently fine to capture the permeability for project design purposes, but should still provide adequate data on the scale of urban metabolism studies. Pincetl and Fournier pointed to use of fly-over maps to identify hardscape paved areas that can augment the estimates of surface areas of highways, streets and roads available from state and local government sources. Data regarding material flows can be obtained down to a sub-urban area level from the IMPLAN database and tool. They indicated that data regarding building ages can be obtained from the California Economic Development Division by business data centers. This is the data approach used by Reyna and Chester to also indicate the rate of demolition of buildings. The rate of demolition of publicly owned roads and streets would have to be estimated from maintenance and rehabilitation data from local and state government sources, inferred for private sources, and compared with estimates of civil infrastructure demolition hauling ton-miles.An UM-LCA framework was developed that can quantify water and hardscape material metabolism for a defined area/boundary as shown in Figure 7. It is based on the literature survey and discussions with experts in water management systems,lettuce vertical farming storm water runoff quality, freight systems and materials across number of institutions and agencies. For initial use in California, Caltrans adjusted urban area boundaries derived from the 2010 census and approved by FHWA are being considered as the system boundaries for the framework. The framework consists of horizontal and vertical flows. Horizontal flows are hardscape material flows which include asphalt products, concrete products, aggregates, crushed concrete demolition materials from building and other structures, additives, admixtures and recyclable materials. The vertical flow is the hydrologic cycle which is considered in the framework. The goal for development and use of the framework is to reduce environmental impacts of urban hardscape through analysis and rethinking of hardscape management, including design, construction, maintenance, rehabilitation and end-of-life to produce and compare alternatives to current practices. In addition to the typical environmental impact-indicators in the FHWA pavement LCA framework , it is proposed that later development should consider inclusion of the social LCA indicators developed in a separate recent report . Initial indicators have been developed for thermal comfort, focused on outdoor or pavement related thermal comfort rather than inside-building comfort, aural comfort and glare comfort . Only some of these references look at development of life cycle impact indicators; most are focused on comfort indices that could serve as mid-point indicators rather than indicators of effects on human health over the life cycle and considering all stages of the life cycle. Effects of pavement on the overall urban heat island for the entire urban area and the resultant impacts on thermal comfort, summertime cooling, wintertime heating and energy use from heating and cooling can also be considered.

Consideration of overall urban heat island effects requires climate modeling, and consideration of the energy sources for heating and cooling. A recent study in California found that the energy and greenhouse gas emission impacts of changing pavement surfaces to increase albedo and decrease urban area heat island were primarily dependent on the changes in pavement materials, and the effects of resultant changes in building energy use were much smaller. This result will change depending on the climate region and sources of electrical energy for air conditioning and building heating.There is no single source for data for hardscape material flows. Some of the common data sources include databases, LCA literature, public documents, surveys, etc. A comprehensive list of data sources for different materials were compiled in previous research conducted for development of an LCA framework for aviation pavements as well as the FHWA pavement LCA framework report as shown in Table 1, and which can be translated for use in the UMLCA framework. In LCA, the terms foreground and background data are often used to differentiate between data that defines or represent the study application and the datasets used to describe the background systems on which they rely datasets derived from databases. Table 1 include references to both background and foreground data sources, but mostly background data sources.For California, the UCPRC has previously developed LCI datasets for construction materials tailored to California conditions, which are particularly suitable for projects in California. UCPRC updated LCA models with new inventories, processes, and models recently to expand the capacities of LCA for improving the sustainability of pavement operations in California . The updates included new inventories for pavement materials such as asphalt, concrete, terminal blend rubberized asphalt concrete, warm-mix asphalt, open-graded friction courses, pre-cast concrete slabs, reinforced concrete, aggregate bases, cement treated bases, asphalt treated bases, maintenance treatments such as chip seals, slurry seals, and reflective coatings, and the different types of full- and partial-depth recycling strategies that are typically used by Caltrans. Furthermore, the UCPRC LCIs have been critically reviewed by three LCA experts for data assumptions, collection, processes and quality. These LCIs and impact calculations are included in a new LCA tool called eLCAP . Similar activities could be undertaken at any state or city level to generate geographically appropriate LCAs and eLCAP or other similar tools could include updated regionally adjusted inventories for locations outside California. Quantification of flows of materials that are transported in and out of the urban boundary are needed to be able to apply the unit process data. The Commodity Flow Survey is conducted under the partnership of the Bureau of Transportation Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau every few years. CFS data covers movement of forty-three goods that are transported in and out of the boundaries of the U.S. and U.S. cities by road transport. The Freight Analysis Framework Data Tabulation Tool  is another data source that can be used to collect data for a specific city or region in the U.S. that can then be used in the UM-LCA framework. The FAF4 tool is divided into four flow types; total flows, domestic flows, import flows and export flows. Total flows include domestic and foreign shipments between domestic origins and destinations whereas domestic flows do not include foreign trade flows. Import and export flows includes goods movement between domestic and foreign origins.

Over the following half-century, most physicians and researchers among the Pima Indians avoided the conclusion that a more sedentary lifestyle was the decisive factor in the degradation of health on communities. Instead, many drew a correlation with the increase in processed starches and high sugar beverages among reservation Pima communities, in contrast to those who lived away from those regions that came to rely on federally-sanctioned processed foods. The health of these Native American communities, then, was impacted by new federal food and land policies; just as earlier colonial interventions impacted their nutritional lives in problematic ways.Among other resources for such a conclusion and/or postscript to their course, students could use Annual Reports of the Commissioner of Indians Affairs. The reports provide evidence from Indian Territory between the 1820s and the 1930s, describing nutritional changes, diseases, perceived health problems, and ecological and agricultural developments. Students could also assess Indian and Pioneer Papers, which detail thousands of interviews of residents of Oklahoma in the 1930s. Many of those residents were elderly and recalled nutritional, agricultural, and health developments that took place over the previous century. Students – and future researchers – might even consult advertisements from “Indian Territory” newspapers. Their proliferation of cures, tonics, and “snake-oil” medicines for digestive problems after the Civil War era might provide clues to problematic dietary changes among Native Americans; changes that resulted in part from disruptive state and federal policies that were contiguous with challenging interventions that took place during the earlier colonial eras.Into the most recent era, indeed, reservation communities have been more susceptible to certain problems that are associated with the modern western diet,vertical farm as broadly defined during the second half of the twentieth century – particularly its reliance on refined carbohydrates in packaged and processed goods.

From the 1960s to the 1970s, for example, medical researchers began to define a clear correlation between the appearance of obesity and Type II diabetes in Native American communities and their adoption of processed foods in federal welfare programs that targeted newly formed reservations. Reports of Type II diabetes among Oklahoma communities increased after their move into federally-mandated reservations through the 1940s. A review of literature from 1832 to 1939 by the epidemiologist Kelly West found no reports of diabetes among the Kiowa, Comanche or Apache communities living in the region .Similarly, diabetes seems to have been much less prevalent among Pima Indian populations who lived away from reservations in the American Southwest before 1940. By the turn of the twenty-first century, however, around half of all Pima Indians have been reported to suffer from diabetes.Following their analysis of early contact history, students might consider these more recent phenomena in light of modern scientific literature on metabolic syndrome. According to federal statistics from the present day, moreover, Native American communities continue to suffer from diabetes, cirrhosis, influenza, pneumonia, and perinatal and early infancy diseases at greater rates than the general American population.Yet as the USDA nutritional guidelines for the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations program demonstrate, Native American populations will continue to receive food welfare in the form of packaged and processed starches, seed oils, and low fat animal sources – foods that have potentially contributed to increasing metabolic syndrome in the US population more generally.As they try to understand possible correlations between the two scholarly fields of history and nutritional science, therefore, students and researchers might begin to think about problematic nutritional interventions and paradigms outside the Native American community, among the American public more generally.

The study of early-American history and the problematic European intervention in Native American nutritional life should inform their future careers in fields such as public health, scientific research, nutritional science, and medicine. Approximately five to seven million years ago, nectar spurs arose in the ancestor of Aquilegia , which then diversified into ∼ 70 species in two major clades: one distributed across Eurasia, and the other primarily distributed across North America. Spur morphology varies substantially across the genus, ranging in length from ∼ 1-16 cm, and varying in other morphological characteristics such as the degree of curvature and color. These petal characteristics contribute to pollinator specificity, which plays an important role in reproductive isolation between taxa . For example, species that occur in both Eurasia and North America have the ancestral morphology of the genus — shorter, curved spurs, usually ranging in color from blue to purple — and are typically pollinated by bees. In North America, convergent evolution has lead to several lineages with red and yellow flowers, and straight, medium-length nectar spurs that are primarily pollinated by hummingbirds. Multiple North American lineages that generally lack floral anthocyanins and are yellow or white have evolved long nectar spurs and are pollinated by hawk moths. In addition to these three pollination syndromes, one species native to montane regions of central China, A. ecalcarata, has secondarily lost nectar spurs and is primarily pollinated by syrphid flies. Given the role that nectar spurs have played in the diversification of Aquilegia, understanding the genetic and developmental basis of how they form is key to understanding both the initial evolution of this three dimensional structure as well as the generation of subsequent modifications that serve as adaptations to different pollinators.Phase I broadly comprises the mitotic phase of petal development in which localized cell-divisions establish the spur cup. Initially, cell divisions are dispersed throughout the petal primordium, but they cease in a wave that begins at the margins of the petal, moving basipetally and causing divisions to become concentrated in the nascent spur.

Mitotic activity is maintained in the developing spur until the spur reaches 5-9 mm in length, but it is progressively restricted toward the spur tip, where the nectary develops. As cells begin to differentiate in Phase II, anisotropic cell expansion becomes a major contributor to spur shape,nft vertical farming particularly length. Differences in spur length across Aquilegia species have been primarily attributed to differences in cell length, rather than cell number, although the basis of spur curvature and other aspects of shape have yet to be studied in detail. In an effort to understand the genetic basis of nectar spur development in Aquilegia, a previous study examined gene expression differences between the petal blade and spur at several early developmental stages in the horticultural variety A. coerulea ‘Origami’. This study ruled out a role for type I KNOX genes, which maintain cellular indeterminacy in meristematic tissue, indicating that the prolonged mitotic activity in the spur is not meristematic in nature. However, a number of other genes whose homologs play a role in regulating the transition between cell proliferation and differentiation in the petals of Arabidopsis thaliana were highly differentially expressed between the petal blade and spur. For example, the TEOSINTE BRANCHED/CYCLOIDEA/PCFgene, AqTCP4, whose homolog in A. thaliana, TCP4, controls petal size by repressing cell-division, was more highly expressed in petal blades where mitotic activity first ceases. In contrast, a homolog of an A. thaliana GRF-INTERACTING FACTORgene that controls petal size by promoting cell-division, AqGIF1/AN3, was up-regulated in the Aquilegia spur where mitotic activity is maintained. The most highly differentially expressed gene identified in this study is a member of the STYLISHgene family, whose homologs in A. thaliana are best known for their functions in carpel, rather than petal, development. Subsequent analyses of this gene, AqSTY1, and two additional Aquilegia homologs in the STY gene family, AqSTY2 and Aq LATERAL ROOT PRIMORDIUM , revealed that in addition to a conserved role in carpel development, these genes are critical to nectary development. Although the AqSTY-like genes do not appear to function in the earliest phases of nectar spur development, these results highlight the utility of gene expression studies to identify novel candidates involved in unique roles of Aquilegia petal development. The previous gene expression and functional analyses were conducted on a single Aquilegia cultivar, and did not address questions regarding the conservation and divergence of gene expression patterns during early petal development across the diverse morphologies in the genus Aquilegia. Here we conduct transcriptomic analyses of Phase I petals at five different developmental stages from four different Aquilegia species, A. ecalcarata, A. sibirica, A. formosa, and A. chrysantha, representing a diverse set of pollination morphologies and spanning the Aquilegia phylogeny . This broad sampling allowed us to take a comparative approach, combining differential expression and weighted gene correlation network analyses to explore both commonalities in the genetic basis of petal development across the genus Aquilegia as well as taxon-specific differences.

To that end, a set of genes commonly DE between the three spurred species in our study, A. sibirica, A. formosa, and A. chrysantha, and the spurless species, A. ecalcarata was compared to the set of DE genes between the petal blade and spur previously conducted in A. coerulea ‘Origami’. This comparison revealed only 35 genes that are either more highly expressed in both A. ecalcarata and the petal blade or in the spurred taxa and the petal spur. In addition to these unbiased analyses, we explored the expression of Aquilegia homologs of genes known to regulate the transition between cell division and differentiation in A. thaliana petals in order determine the potential for broad functional conservation as well as any potential role in Aquilegia spur development.Petals were dissected from floral buds spanning Phase I of development from each of four species of Aquilegia – A. ecalcarata, A. sibirica, A. formosa, and A. chrysantha. Although it can be challenging to determine homologous developmental stages across taxa, a combination of petal morphology and stamen development was used to group samples across the four species into five developmental stages , DS1-DS5, with petals from at least three flowers collected for each species and stage. Representative samples of each species at each of the five developmental stages are presented in Fig. 2. The first petal stage assessed was collected from buds approximately equivalent to floral stage 8. At this point, the morphology of petals from all four species examined was quite similar. Petals were approximately 0.5 mm wide and, although they exhibited slight concave adaxial curvature, the spur had yet to initiate. Notably, this is the first time that a pre-initiation stage petal has been sampled for RNA analysis in Aquilegia. The second petal stage examined came from floral buds at approximately stage 9. At this stage, the spur had begun to form in the spurred taxa and was approximately 0.5 mm long while petals were approximately 1 mm wide in the blade region. Even at this early stage of nectar spur development, morphological differences between the taxa were already detectable, with the developing spur of A. formosa being wider than those of A. sibirica and A. chrysantha . These differences in the spurred taxa continued through the third petal stage sampled where developing spurs continued to elongate but largely maintained their shape as established in DS2. By the fourth petal stage sampled , additional morphological differences became apparent. For example, although spurs were only between 1 and 2 mm long at this stage, curvature in the A. sibirica petal was already being established. Some of the spurs at this stage began to appear more bulbous at the tip of the spur, indicating the incipient development of the nectary. Although A. ecalcarata does not develop a spur or a nectary, at DS4 a small pocket is visible below the petal attachment point. In addition to spur differences, several subtle differences in petal blade morphology across the taxa were apparent, including the shape of the blade apex and its relative length compared to the spur. The developmental gap between the fourth and fifth petal stages collected was larger than the gaps between the other stages. At the fifth time point collected , the spurs of the spurred taxa ranged in length from 4-7 mm and morphological differences were accentuated. A. sibirica spurs exhibited more extreme curvature, A. formosa spurs were broad through most of the length of the spur, narrowing just before the nectary, and A. chrysantha spurs were long and narrow. In general, this stage should represent the transition out of phase I into phase II, where cell elongation is the dominant factor affecting spur length.We started by comparing changes in the transcriptional profiles of petals between serial developmental stages for each species. For A. ecalcarata, A. sibirica, and A. chrysantha, the differences in gene transcription were minimal between each of the first four stages, whereas there was a larger jump between DS4 and DS5 .

A garden may be understood as a place where the ‘geography of the mind meets that of the earth’,making it entirely apropos that the vertical garden finds its origins in the monumentally horizontal prairies and farmlands of the American Middle West, where the topography of Professor Stanley Hart White’s creative intellect meets a seemingly endless geography of flatness. White patented the first known green wall in 1938, prototyping the technology in the backyard of his Urbana residence, yet the concept emerges in his writings and drawings as far back as 1931 as a response to the problem of modern garden design. The significance of this invention has ‘still unrealized provocations’ on the history of gardens and designed landscapes, having been conceived during a trajectory towards modernism in the same geographic region as the Prairie School and American Skyscraper. Although the provenance of this new technological garden is topographically uncanny, the invention itself is pure genius, synthesizing ideas from modern landscape and architectural theory, building sciences, horticulture, and industrial arts alike. White’s vertical garden finds its legal origins in 1937–38, albeit the technological and material precursors to the invention extend back to early horticultural experiments and industrialization of modern building materials. Stanley Hart White, Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign from 1922 to 1959, was granted US Patent 2,113,523 on 5th April 1938 for the Vegetation-Bearing Architectonic Structure and System in which he describes the method for creating an ‘architectonic structure of any buildable size, shape or height, whose visible or exposed surfaces may present a permanently growing covering of vegetation’.In six beautifully illustrated pages, Professor White reveals the new art of growing plants within/on a vertical,commercial greenhouse supplies architectonic, substrate-holding frame, and in the process describes a new vertical garden type not fully realized till after his death in 1979.

All that remains of White’s invention are his careful diaries, a series of patents, and his brother E. B. White’s correspondences about Stan’s new invention. Stanley Hart White is best known as an educator who modernized landscape pedagogy at the University of Illinois, influencing the work of Hideo Sasaki, Peter Walker, Richard Haag, and others, through his innovative teaching style and creativity.With the discovery of his patent for the first known green wall, or Botanical Bricks, he may also be credited as an inventor and technological innovator, conceptualizing the vertical garden and pioneering green modernism . White’s thoughts on vegetation-bearing architecture crystallize in his patent of 1938, yet notions of a green wall emerge as early as 1931 in his lectures and writings on the modern garden. Although the intended audiences for White’s early writings on vertical greenery are not yet apparent, the idea of a vegetation bearing garden enclosure preoccupies him for several years as documented in his personal journals, or Commonplace Books, in the University of Illinois Library Archives. Technical aspects of White’s green wall find their clearest articulation in US Patent 2,113,523, filed on 18th August 1937, yet the theoretical dimensions developed as a treatise on modernism and garden design, in which the vertical surfaces of the garden create a backdrop for modern living. In an essay titled ‘What is Modern’, White discusses the green wall as a design solution for the modern garden, allowing for the preservation of a free plan and composition of a garden in the vertical dimension. His references to Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, Walt Whitman, Charlie Chaplin, Norman Bel Geddes, Adolph Appia, Sheldon Cheney, Walt Disney, and others, situates the work among a group of ‘moderns’ concerned with changing lives through art and architecture.The Vegetation-Bearing Architectonic Structure and System evolved as a response to the problem of modernism in garden design, and is a unique contribution of landscape architecture to this effort, representing a clear translation of garden theory into garden form and legalese.

The prescience of this work is astounding, predicting not only the emergence of the vertical garden in the contemporary built environment, but a method of scholarship in patent development not widely accepted by US universities until the 1970s.The first drawings of a green wall appear in White’s Commonplace Books in 1932 as two humble sketches of a wall section and elevation. White’s elevation sketch shows a wall composed of vertical greenery, decorative insets, lights, fishes, and birds occupying the inset voids. His section sketch reveals a soil filled wall structured with interior irrigation and voids for compositional elements. Annotations in the Commonplace Books Index identify the sketch as an idea for the Century of Progress Exhibition in Chicago, and as his first sketches of Botanical Bricks.White’s inchoate drawings and description of a green wall in 1931–32 mature until his application for the Vegetation-Bearing Architectonic Structure and System on 18th August 1937, where he artfully translates garden theory into United States Patent and Trademark Office legalese with the help of his attorney, Elmer Hovenden Gates of Arlington, Virginia.The new art of vegetation bearing architecture was entirely novel at the time of application, and no citations of prior art are associated with White’s invention. Currently, thirty four international patents cite US Patent 2,113,523 as prior art, encoding an array of inventions from grass cube chairs, to vegetation-bearing gabion walls.Interestingly, White’s lawyer, Elmer Hovenden Gates, and proposed business partner, William M. McPherson, patented related vegetation-bearing technologies within weeks of his submission. More than 50 patents cite the Vegetation Bearing Cellular Structure and System, Vegetation-Bearing Display Surface, and the Vegetation-Bearing Architectonic Structure and System, collectively encoding a diverse ensemble of environmental technologies. The legalese defining this new field offers valuable insights into the founding principles of vegetation-bearing architecture as a chimera of architectonic structure and vegetated system. According to White, architectonics relates to ‘the art of landscaping structure as well as to buildings, but distinguished from the art of plant culture’.Within this architectonic structure, plant growth is supported through a layering of horticultural substrates and reticular materials. In this configuration, the ‘vegetation in its final positions has its roots within the compost while the tops of the vegetation would extend through the reticular surfaces of the units or compounds into the open air where their normal development occurs’.

The patents legalese describes not only the technical specifications of White’s new invention, but also the proposed scope of vegetation-bearing architecture as a new art. This scope is of particular interest with the emergence of the vertical garden and green wall in the contemporary built environment, as the language that defines the new art also encodes innovations in related technologies today.White’s vision of rapidly assembled and scalable plant-bearing architectonic structures adopts principles from modular building and construction techniques, situating his invention among the array of building products developed during the early decades of the twentieth century. The common name Botanical Bricks further reveals White’s notion that his modular building units be integrated into the building arts as commonly as bricks in gardens and architecture. Potential application listed in the patent range from camouflage, concealment, decoration, backgrounds, and screens for use in architectural project . Contrasts between White’s proposed applications, and contemporary notion of vegetated architecture as a sustainable technology is especially salient,vertical grow as language to describe sustainability or environmental performance had not yet been established. The field of vegetation-bearing architecture was rapidly expanded by two contingent patents filed on 4th April and 28th May 1938 by William M. MacPherson and Elmer Hovendon Gates, respectively. These patents reinterpret the structural system proposed by White in which the vegetation bearing units assemble like masonry or bricks, and are essentially self supporting through stacking and repetition . Consecutive to this, patents by Gates and MacPherson envision vegetation-bearing units supported within a structural and load-bearing framework, and vegetation bearing units secured to a self-supporting wall as a veneer or surface system. Although the structural iterations presented by each patent alter the load bearing relationship of the vegetation to the structural element, the new art, as described by White, remains remarkably resilient to these adaptations and contemporary permutations.Although the structural modifications proposed by Gates and MacPherson reorient the relation of the vegetation-bearing unit to the underlying structural system, the basic technology and principles remains intact. The resilience of White’s new art is found in its aptitude for reinterpretation, as he defines a relationship between plants and structure that elucidates their interdependence and interstices. Triangulations between the building sciences, horticultural arts, and landscape theory are seminal to White’s conception of the Vegetation Bearing Architectonic Structure and System. White received a Bachelor of Science in agriculture from Cornell in 1912, his Master of Landscape Architecture from Harvard in 1915.His background in science and design undoubtedly contributed to a synthetic approach to plants, structure, and garden form, yet it is a convergence of material innovations and new scientific discoveries that make the vertical garden possible, and timely, in the 1930s. Innovation in building materials occurred rapidly in early years of the twentieth century, as industrialization and wartime research fueled experiments in architecture and the sciences alike. Material Sciences flourished during World War I and material product lines expanded through the roaring twenties, radically impacting architecture and the production of buildings.New building materials were readily tested, and exhaustive volumes of literature were published to disseminate information in an ever-changing marketplace for architects and designers. Building material bibliographies from the era document rapid integration and research on materials such as armorphy, clay tile, plywood, glass block, masonite, rostone, vinylite, celotex, porcelain, zonolite, to name just a few.Concurrent to the expansion of new materials in architecture, was an expansion of the role of popular science and a belief that technology would improve modern living. In agriculture, new technologies such as hydroponics, popularized in the 1930s, promised to create new productive systems that would increase yields and feed a growing population with increased efficiency.

White’s invention exists at the intersection of these spheres of innovation, where the differentiation between horticultural system and building system begins to blur. As human impact increases in marine and coastal ecosystems , rules, regulations, and policies have struggled to keep up with the need for adequate environmental management . There has long been an emphasis on biodiversity conservation in environmental decision-making , but biodiversity for biodiversity’s sake is not always enough in the face of industry and economic development. However, biodiversity is often considered the source of most ecosystem services , which are the direct and indirect benefits derived from the environment. The concept of ecosystem services was made popular by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment , and has since gone through many iterations . I adopt the following framework: ecosystems have physical, chemical, and biological structures that support ecological functions , which can be combined with a human perspective to produce ecosystem services. They are divided into four categories: provisioning , regulating , cultural , and supporting . Ecosystem services provide a direct link between natural systems and human well-being, contributing to a tangible rationale for sustainable development, management, and protection of the environment. As a result, they can be a useful tool in environmental decision-making. This dissertation aimed to explore approaches for characterizing ecosystem services in two types of systems subject to human impact: deep-sea habitats and natural storm water treatment systems . The broad scope of systems highlights the context dependence of ecosystem services as well as overarching themes among them. I employed an interdisciplinary approach that was heavily influenced by the ecology and economic disciplines, which facilitated application of results to real questions in environmental management. In the deep sea, there is increasing demand for natural resources , but environmental rules, regulations, and policies are only now being developed for some parts of it . The emerging industry of deep-seabed mining presents a novel opportunity to incorporate ecosystem services into environmental management prior to commercial exploitation. Chapter 2 reviews ecosystem services associated with deep-sea habitats targeted for mining , and the structures and functions that support them. Known examples include fisheries landings , genetic resources , carbon sequestration and storage , and element cycling , but there are likely to be ecosystem services yet discovered. Chapter 2 also discusses how and where ecosystem services can be incorporated into existing deep-seabed mining regulations. Overall, the second chapter of this dissertation creates a framework for studying ecosystem services and for applying them to environmental decision-making.

It considers historical evidence that correlates a decline in Native American health and fertility with ruptures to indigenous food systems following European colonization. It suggests novel and interdisciplinary ways in which advanced undergraduate or graduate level students might examine the correlation between breached indigenous nutritional practices and a decline in Native American health. These learning objectives bring together students of history and natural science in one classroom and entail new ways of synthesizing hitherto separate scholarly enterprises. In light of the most cutting-edge scientific literature on nutrition, metabolic syndrome, and immunology, they require a new consideration of the historical association between Native American health and indigenous food systems. In the centuries after European contact, many Native American communities were forced to move away from diets that had been comparatively high in animal proteins, animal fats, and fat soluble vitamins, and which also often incorporated important starch and plant sources such as wild rice, tubers, chenopods, beans, seeds, maize, squash, berries, and leafy vegetables. Notwithstanding regional variations, the pre-contact Native American diet was thus relatively nutrient dense; incorporating varied macro-nutrients and micro-nutrients through hunting and gathering practices and indigenous forms of horticulture that were subsequently disrupted. Thanks to the deleterious and often deliberate effects of colonization, which can only be understood through careful historical study and analysis, deeply-rooted food systems were ruptured. From as early as the sixteenth century, new post-contact circumstances forced many Native Americans to adopt diets that favored imported European grain cultivars, to maintain greater calorific reliance on New World maize species,square plastic pot and to reduce their consumption of traditionally hunted animals and fish and cultivated plant sources.

It is important to avoid any crude interpretative framework that might “exoticize” pre-contact Native American communities as having avoided any form of managed agriculture, crop monoculture, or organized land husbandry. Recent historical research, after all, has often employed the metaphor of “gardening” to question the notion that pre-contact Native Americans relied solely on hunting and gathering methods for sustenance. It is also imperative to avoid eschewing the distinct variations between indigenous food cultures both during and after the period of European contact: veering between the cultivation of maize, tubers, and starchy seeds alongside hunted animals in the Southwest to a relatively homogenous reliance on fats gathered from hunted meats and fish in the sub-Artic; as well as many gradations in between, such as the cultivation of wild rice alongside more traditional hunting and gathering patterns in the Great Lakes region. Yet this article – and the proposed educational course it defines – attempts at least some degree of generalization in discussing the differences between indigenous food systems and those that were introduced after European contact; and in discussing how students and researchers might view those distinctions in light of the modern scientific literature on metabolic and nutritional health. In questioning crude definitions of pre-contact Native Americans as noble hunter-gatherers – including those that are sometimes used by advocates of ancestral health and Paleolithic nutritional principles – it is important to avoid going to the other extreme by deemphasizing the relative environmental and dietary importance of hunting and gathering systems in many different parts of North America immediately prior to, and even after, European contact. While indigenous agricultural activities were present throughout the American continent, hunter gathering practices were also continued to a far greater extent than in post-Paleolithic Europe and the Middle East – potentially heralding important ecological and nutritional differences between the two regional populations over the following centuries. Those differences may inform our understanding of the role of nutrition in evolutionary health, particularly by comparing the pre and post-contact history of Native Americans. Recent scientific research has suggested that we may be able to locate specific loci in the DNA of some Native Americans that affect their insulin sensitivity. Individuals with certain genetic variants at these loci would be more likely to develop diseases such as diabetes following a move towards a higher carbohydrate diet, as has often taken place from the period of European colonization to the present day.

Examining the Pima Indian community of Arizona as a case study, researchers have found several loci with genetic variants that confer susceptibility to diabetes. For example a genome wide association study by Hanson et al identified polymorphisms in the DNER locus that are associated with increased risk of diabetes in Pima Indians. The Decolonizing the Diet project, and other similar endeavors, thus start with the hypothesis that a return to pre-European contact diets will improve the health of Native American communities, reducing hitherto disproportionately high instances of diabetes, as well as heart disease and other conditions associated with metabolic syndrome. Native American populations, indeed, have often featured as case studies among those scholars who attempt to define a “thrifty gene hypothesis” to explain why some people are prone to diabetes and/or obesity. A “thrifty” genotype, it is suggested, may have been evolutionarily successful for individuals descended from hunter-gatherer populations. Its occurrence would have allowed those populations, particularly child-bearing women, to gain fat more easily during times of abundance . Those with more fat may have better survived times of food scarcity, and thus passed on their genes. But during times of nutritional abundance, they would be more likely to develop metabolic syndromes such as obesity and diabetes, according to the hypothesis. In post-hunter-gathering populations, a similar paradigm has been hypothesized by Sellayah and others, who have suggested that the thrifty genotype may have appeared among those who had “undergone positive selection for genes that favored energy storage as a consequence of the cyclical episodes of famine and surplus after the advent of farming 10 000 years ago.” In any class, project, or research agenda, however, it is important to avoid necessarily deterministic conclusions when assessing the correlation between recent genetic studies and epidemiological data from Native American communities . Firstly, more research is still needed in order to assess whether particular genetic variants for insulin sensitivity are present exclusively or at a higher frequency in Native American populations compared to other populations, or whether they are equally prevalent in other ethnic communities who were not included in present studies. Despite retaining the same genetic variants, those other communities might not suffer from diabetes to the extent of Native Americans. Secondly, moreover, greater genetic susceptibility to insulin insensitivity or any other medical condition need not pre-determine the actual onset of diabetes or other disorders, as is evidenced by the relatively positive health markers among Pima and other Native American communities prior to increasing their consumption of processed and high sugar foods.

The notion that Native Americans have suffered from particular genetic predispositions might also prove problematic in encouraging students, scholars, and researchers to adopt an overly deterministic account of health outcomes,25 liter pot eschewing the disrupting role of human interventions against ancestral food-ways – either in exacerbating Native American susceptibility to metabolic syndromes and/or infectious disease or even as a primary factor in their increasing mortality and declining fertility after European contact. Examining – and problematizing – the link between modern disease susceptibility and genetic predispositions should prepare students for a related scholarly endeavor: assessing the potential tensions and pitfalls associated with the concept of a “biological exchange” of infectious diseases at the period of contact between Europeans and Native Americans . Here too a focus on abstract biological forces risks overlooking the role of human interventions in determining the inevitability of demographic decline in the face of disease. Historians, notably and most famously Albert Crosby, once defined the decimation in number and health of post-contact Native American communities according to a metaphor of biological exchange. Here, we have been told, Native Americans in a “virgin land” were unable to cope with the pathogens inadvertently introduced by Europeans after the arrival of Columbus.These great killer diseases, introduced by germs, spores, and parasites from European and African sources, included smallpox, measles, influenza, bubonic plague, diphtheria, typhus, cholera, scarlet fever, trachoma, whopping cough, chicken pox, and tropical malaria. Yet as the most advanced historical scholarship now suggests, human interventions were necessary to bring about the marked decline in Native American health and fertility, and the increase in mortality, in the centuries after the arrival of Columbus in the western hemisphere – as distinct from the notion of an amorphous biological exchange involving a mismatch between European and Native-American immunity.There is no doubt that Native American communities and Europeans retained different immunities during the period of contact. But suggesting that Native Americans were predisposed to near–total demographic collapse solely due to their relative lack of immunity may lead students and scholars to eschew any further assessment of their nutritional disruption as a co-factor in such a phenomenon; just as modern studies of genetic loci for diabetes might lead researchers to eschew the role of post-colonial interventions in late-nineteenth century and twentieth-century Native American food patterns, which affected their insulin sensitivity above and beyond any genetic predisposition. Scholarship of global infectious disease has shown that societies have most often been able to recover demographically from near collapse following massive outbreaks, usually in around 150 years. Disturbances such as epidemics have tended to result in only short-term demographic decline, with populations returning to pre-disease levels of growth, decline, or stability.

Describing the response to the European “black death”, for example, McNeill points out that “the period required for medieval European populations to absorb the shock of renewed exposure to plague seems to have been between 100 and 133 years.”As Gottfied has demonstrated, fourteenth and fifteenth century Europeans suffered multiple epidemics including the Black Death, Typhus, influenza and measles, yet their populations were able to recover demographically after around a century.Herring has even shown that early twentieth century Native American populations outside reservations were able to recover numbers following influenza, smallpox and measles epidemics. Taking these general studies as a starting point, students and researchers in biology and public health policy would gain a broader understanding of immunology and epidemiology through a joint course with historians and anthropologists. Rather than assuming that certain communities are more prone to metabolic syndromes and diseases, whether from genetic loci or a comparative lack of exposure to certain pathogens, they would be able to consider the ways in which human interventions – particularly in food ways – exacerbated demographic decline in the face of disease; both in terms of reduced immunity prior to infection and reduced ability to fight pathogenic invasion. Let us now consider how students might use case studies in Native American history to illustrate such a phenomenon, before turning to the ways in which contemporary scientific studies might then inform their analysis of the role of nutrition in enhancing or reducing the potential for recovery after mass epidemics. Historians of Native-American health and fertility have drawn methodologically and conceptually from general epidemic studies in order to question the Biological Exchange thesis for demographic decline between the 1500s and 1800s. Near total demographic collapse, according to a developing historiographical consensus, was made possible by the rupturing of ancestral social mechanisms by European colonization – rather than simply as a result of differing immune capabilities among the two populations. The failure of Native American populations to return to pre-epidemic demographic numbers, many scholars now assert, derived from human interventions that accompanied the spread of disease, rather than simply the diseases as singular factors. One such human intervention lay in the domesticated agricultural practices that were prescribed by European colonization after first contact with Native Americans. The disastrous decline in Native American demography was partly affected by the growing mismatch between their long-evolved ecological frameworks and European cattle-pens and agricultural methods. The latter exacerbated the spread of diseases that Native American communities were already struggling to fight off due to their impaired immunity.According to the pioneering paleo-archeological work of Armelagos, such a phenomenon has commonly affected societies as they have transitioned to concentrated agricultural settlement and animal husbandry. Examining paleo-archeological evidence in European and Middle Eastern populations, Armelagos has noted the problems that followed relatively sudden proximity to domesticated animals and to human and animal waste in newly agricultural societies. Such proximity increased the spread of parasitic disease. In previous hunter-gatherer populations, frequent migrations limited the contact of individuals with human waste. In more sedentary populations, concentrated around grain production and domesticated animals, human and animal waste became more likely to contaminate drinking water.

TOC1 and CO regulate circadian rhythm and day-length responses, while RGA represses floral growth in the absence of gibberellic acid. WUSCHEL genes have a well-characterized function in meristem organization and have been shown to interact with AGAMOUS in floral meristem development. AGL11 is important in ovule and seed development, and has been shown to interact with cytokinin to control fruit size. These floral development genes may have specific roles as “entry points” for the SDR into the floral development pathway to regulate the development of a particular sex . Cronk and Müller proposed that ARR17 may act as a feminizing master regulator in Populus through the suppression of PISTILLATA or APETALLA3 MADS-box genes. Importantly, there was no association of either PI or AP3 expression with genomic variation in the SDR, despite the fact that PI shows very high levels of expression in males , further suggesting that the mechanism of sex determination in Salix may be different from Populus. eQTL analysis revealed several loci with an exceptionally high number of trans-eQTL . Intriguingly, the hotspot with the greatest number of trans-eQTL is located in the region on chr07 homologous to the S. nigra SDR, which could implicate its role as an ancestral SDR in Salix, or explain a fitness advantage of a chr07 SDR in S. nigra when linked with sex-dimorphism genes in this region. Approximately 250 kb from this locus on chr07 is Sapur.007G068100, a homolog of AGL32,fodder growing system a MADS-box gene involved in ovule development. The expression of this gene is associated in trans with the chromosome-15 SDR region, further supporting its role as a top-level regulatory gene under direct regulation by the SDR.

Compounds produced from the phenylpropanoid and terpenoid pathways are well-characterized in Salicaceae, and there is evidence that floral volatile, terpenoid, and phenolic glycoside profiles differ substantially between males and females, which affects both pollinator attraction and herbivory, traits that are likely to be evolutionary drivers of diecy and affect cultivar yield. In support of this, we identified five terpenoid pathway genes and 15 phenylpropanoid pathway genes with eQTL in the SDR. These include both genes involved in the core phenylpropanoid pathway, and biosynthesis of specific compounds, including naringenin, flavenol glucosides, and sesquiter penoids . This provides evidence supporting a direct link between the SDR and synthesis of these compounds, by an as-yet unknown mechanism.Of the 45 identified miRNA loci, 18 were male differentially expressed and seven were female differentially expressed. Among the putative targets of these miRNAs were dicer-like genes, squamosa promoter-like genes, andauxin-response factors, and transcription factors providing evidence that miRNAs are likely to be a component of floral sex-dimorphism regulation. Notably, five miRNAs were identified that had no match with any small RNAs in the PmiREN database and could represent genus- or species-specific micro-RNAs. Furthermore, 13 miRNA loci with matches in the pmiREN database were not matched to a known P. trichocarpa miRNA, which is the closest species for which extensive small RNA data are available . This suggests that S. purpurea may utilize different sets of small RNAs in floral development relative to Poplar, which likely has implications on sex dimorphism and determination. Expression results showed that four miR156 and two miR172 homologs have greater expression in male floral tissue. In Arabidopsis, miR156 and miR172 interact to form a gradient that regulates vegetative-to-floral meristem transition through the targeting of squamosa promoter-like genes.

While all copies of both miR172 and miR156 show malebiased expression in catkins, the overall expression of miR156 is greater than miR172 in males. The majority of SPL genes that are targeted are female-up regulated in S. purpurea, including an SPL4 homolog on chr07 that also shows increased methylation in males in its promoter region. These data support that the miR156/172 pathway is upregulated in male catkins and may be responsible for sex dimorphisms . This pathway may play a role in male floral tissue development or differentiation. Importantly, one copy of miR156 is located in the SDR region unique to chr15Z. Alignment of the chr15Z miR156 precursor sequence to chr15W reveals that a single indel is responsible for this chr15Z-specific mapping , which may prevent transcription or processing of this small RNA from chr15W. This could indicate a dosage dependent response in males, which have four copies of this mature miR156 homolog, compared with only three in females. Female-upregulated miRNAs included miR403, which targets AGO2, and miR162, which targets a dicer-like gene. All of these are involved in small RNA signaling and DNA methylation, which is consistent with the enrichment of transcription regulation terms in the female-upregulated genes. This may point toward a role of genome-wide DNA methylation or RNA silencing in regulating sex dimorphism, possibly mediated by AGO4 or DRB1.Pest- and pathogen-free planting stock is essential for successful establishment and future productivity of new orchards and vineyards. Clean stock is also a requirement for intrastate, interstate and international commerce of tree, vine and garden rose planting stock. To ensure the quality of commercially produced nursery stock in the state, the California Department of Food and Agriculture enforces laws and regulations related to the production of certified nursery stock as outlined in the Nursery Inspection Procedures Manual .

Because of the potentially large and long-term impacts on the nursery crop as well as the subsequently planted orchards, vineyards and ornamental landscapes, control of plant-parasitic nematodes in nursery fields is a major focus of the nursery stock certification program. Producers of perennial crop nursery stock in California can meet nematode certification requirements by fumigating the field at the beginning of the nursery cycle using an approved treatment or by conducting a detailed inspection of soil and planting stock at the end of the production cycle. If growers elect to use inspection procedures instead of approved treatments and soil or plant samples are found to contain prohibited nematodes, further sampling is conducted to delineate the extent of the problem, and nursery stock from the affected area usually is destroyed. Preplant soil fumigation thus reduces the economic risk of a nonsalable nursery crop and is used in most tree and garden rose nurseries in California. Grapevine nursery stock also must meet phytosanitary requirements to be certified in California, but in contrast to tree and rose growers, many grape nursery producers elect to use the inspection procedures rather than fumigation. In practice, the risk of nematode occurrence in production of grapevine nursery stock without fumigants is reduced by spring planting, a relatively shorter nursery production cycle and market preference for smaller nursery stock. However, grape nursery operations with sandy soils or sites where grapes have been grown previously often use preplant fumigation practices comparable to tree and rose nurseries to reduce the economic and market risks of not meeting phytosanitary regulations. Most field-grown perennial nursery operations have used methyl bromide for preplant pest control because it effectively diffuses through the soil profile, penetrates roots and dependably provides effective pest control across a range of soil type and moisture conditions. Under the provisions of the U.S. Clean Air Act and the Montreal Protocol,chicken fodder system the import and manufacture of methyl bromide is being phased out because of its deleterious effects on stratospheric ozone. Perennial nursery producers have largely continued using methyl bromide under the critical use exemptions and quarantine/preshipment criteria . However, increasing production costs and international political pressure on CUE and QPS regulations have spurred efforts to identify economically viable alternatives to methyl bromide for the perennial nursery industry. Several factors limit the adoption of alternative fumigants in California nursery systems. First, there are very few fumigant or non-fumigant nematicides available . In the United States only a handful of fumigants are registered, including methyl bromide, 1,3-dichloropropene , chloropicrin, dimethyl disulfide , and methyl isothiocyanate generating compounds. Of these, DMDS is not currently registered in California and has had only limited testing in nurseries. Methyl iodide was registered in California in late 2010, but the federal registration was withdrawn by the manufacturer in early 2012.Of the fumigants registered in the state, only 1,3-D is an approved treatment in nurseries with medium- to coarsetextured soils . However, it is not approved for nurseries with fine-textured soils because the registered rates are not sufficient to provide acceptable pest control.

Most of the alternative fumigants are heavily regulated due to concerns about human safety and environmental quality related to emission of fumigants and associated volatile organic compounds . These concerns have led to a constantly changing regulatory environment, encompassing buffer zones, field preparation requirements, available compounds and rate limitations on a field and air basin level . Uncertainty within the nursery industry about current and pending fumigant regulations presents a continuing challenge to the adoption of methyl bromide alternatives in California. Although fumigation in the perennial crop nursery industry is driven by nematode certification, there are serious concerns that the level of secondary pest control provided by methyl bromide will not be matched by the alternatives. Weed control with many of the available alternatives is generally not as reliable as with methyl bromide . Although weeds can be addressed to a large extent with tillage, hand-weeding, and herbicides, there are likely to be environmental and economic impacts of greater reliance on these techniques. More importantly, many nursery producers are very concerned about the consequences of soil borne diseases that are currently controlled with methyl bromide or methyl bromide and chloropicrin combinations. Reliance on alternatives with narrower pest control spectrums may result in problems with new diseases or the resurrection of old ones. Research has been conducted in recent years to address issues limiting adoption of methyl bromide alternatives in California’s perennial crop nursery industry . As part of the USDA-ARS Pacific Area-wide Pest Management Program for Integrated Methyl Bromide Alternatives, two additional research and demonstration projects were implemented from 2007 to 2010. First, because current and pending regulations greatly affect how and when fumigants can be used, a research station field trial was conducted to simultaneously determine the effects of emission reduction techniques on pest control and fumigant emissions. Second, two trials were conducted in commercial nurseries to test and demonstrate pest control and nursery stock productivity with 1,3-D treatments in an effort to increase grower experience and comfort with available alternatives.A shank fumigation trial was conducted in 2007 at the UC Kearney Agricultural Center , near Parlier, to determine the effect of two fumigation shank types and five soil surface treatments on 1,3-D emissions and control of representative soil borne pests following removal of a plum orchard. Soil texture at the site was a Hanford fine, sandy loam with pH 7.2, 0.7% organic matter, and a composition of 70% sand, 24% silt and 6% clay. The experiment included 10 treatments with 1,3-D in a split plot design with surface treatments as the main plots and two application shank types as the subplots, as well as an unfumigated control and a methyl bromide plus chloropicrin standard for comparison . Individual plots were 12 feet by 100 feet, and each treatment was replicated three times.Fumigants were applied using commercial equipment on Oct. 2, 2007. Methyl bromide with chloropicrin was applied at 350 pounds per acre with a Noble plow rig set up to inject fumigants 10 inches deep through emitters spaced 12 inches apart while simultaneously installing 1-mil high-density polyethylene film. The 1,3-D treatments, at 332 pounds per acre, were applied using either a standard Telone rig with shanks spaced 20 inches apart and an injection depth of 18 inches or a Buessing shank rig with shanks spaced 24 inches apart and the fumigant injection split at 16- and 26-inch injection depths. The Buessing shank also had wings above each injection nozzle to scrape soil into the shank trace and minimize rapid upward movement of the fumigant . Following 1,3-D application, a disk and ring roller was used to level and compact the surface soil before surface seals were applied over the fumigated plots. Average soil temperature at 20 inches during fumigation was 70°F, and soil moisture was 8.2% to 10.5% weight per weight in the top 3 feet. Surface treatments included HDPE film; virtually impermeable film, VIF ; and a series of intermittent water applications . HDPE and VIF film was installed after the disk and rolling operation using a Noble plow rig.

Fumigant concentration and weed density data were subjected to nonlinear regression analysis using Sigma Plot v. 11 .Because application rates tested in 2007 were normal, the rates were sufficiently high to suppress most pathogens and weeds regardless of the film permeability. For this reason, in 2008 we chose to compare fumigant retention under the two films at a range of rates from low to high, to determine if TIF would improve retention and efficacy across that range. At Salinas in 2008, 1,3-D plus chloropicrin concentrations in the 200-poundper-acre treatment were higher 24 hours post-application under TIF than under standard film . The 1,3-D plus chloropicrin concentrations in the 300-pound-per-acre treatment were higher under TIF than under standard film at 8, 24, 48 and 96 hours after application.Generally, there were no tarp effects on plant diameters except at the 1,3-D plus chloropicrin rate of 100 pounds per acre; TIF plants were 9.4 inches compared with 8.3 inches for standard-film plants .The differences were significant in the 1,3-D plus chloropicrin treatments at 100 and 200 pounds per acre . There was a positive correlation between the 8-hour 1,3-D plus chloropicrin concentration and full season fruit yields for each film . The 8-hour fumigant concentration accounted for 49% to 55% of yield variability in the standard and TIF treatments, respectively. Weed densities were higher under standard film than under TIF. At 100 pounds per acre, 1,3-D plus chloropicrin applied under TIF had significantly fewer weeds than the same rate under standard film . The interaction between fumigant rate and film was significant for common chickweed and common purslane ,dutch bucket hydroponic meaning that the survival of each of these two weeds was different under the two films.

The interaction of yellow nuts edge rate by film was not significant , indicating that nuts edge survival was similar under both films. However, we sought to describe the performance of TIF, therefore we evaluated nuts edge separately under both films. Yellow nuts edge tuber survival was less under TIF than standard film at 100 pounds per acre 1,3-D plus chloropicrin, but not at the other rates. Common purslane and common chickweed seed survival were lower under TIF than standard film at 50 pounds per acre 1,3-D plus chloropicrin . Little mallow and knot weed viability were similar under both films . Differences in weed control due to film type were only observed at the lower fumigant doses of 50 and 100 pounds per acre. This is likely due to the fact that TIF retained more fumigant than standard film, which resulted in a higher dose and lower weed seed survival under TIF than standard film . At application rates above 100 pounds per acre, the fumigant concentrations under both TIF and standard films were sufficiently high to kill weeds, so no differences were found between the films.Results of two trials conducted over 2 years indicate that TIF consistently held methyl bromide plus chloropicrin and 1,3-D plus chloropicrin at higher concentrations than standard film . At fumigant rates of 100 and 200 pounds per acre, strawberry fruit yields were higher and weed control was more complete where TIF was used, compared to standard film . This is likely due to the higher fumigant concentrations being held for a longer time under the TIF than under the morepermeable standard film, so that weeds and possibly soil pathogens were more thoroughly controlled. Drip-applied 1,3-D plus chloropicrin under standard film required at least 300 pounds per acre to provide fruit yields comparable to methyl bromide plus chloropicrin . In contrast, 1,3-D pluschloropicrin drip-applied under TIF at 200 pounds per acre had fruit yields and weed control similar to methyl bromide plus chloropicrin, a 33% reduction in 1,3-D plus chloropicrin rate compared to standard film. Similarly, Ajwa et al. found that the rates of drip-applied chloropicrin required to produce strawberry yields similar to methyl bromide plus chloropicrin were 294 and 198 pounds per acre under standard and VIF, respectively, a 48% reduction in chloropicrin. The recent registration of methyl iodide as a soil fumigant by the California Department of Pesticide Registration requires the use of impermeable films . Methyl iodide must be used with impermeable films as approved by CDPR, and TIF is on the list of approved films .

The results presented here further validate that TIF is effective at increasing fumigant retention and may ease some of the burdens of fumigant regulations on end-users, as well as ease concerns of the general public about exposure to fumigants.Monilinia laxa is the main causal agent of brown rot in Europe, leading to important losses of stone fruit in the field and post harvest. The worldwide yearly losses are estimated to be 1.7 M euros for peach and nectarine and 170 M USD for peach, cherry, and plum production. The disease is controlled using several cultural practices , chemical fungicides in the orchard, treatments onto mummified fruit, and post harvest storage at low temperatures. However, the gradual withdrawal of some fungicides driven by concerns about their negative impact on the environment and human health, the constant threat of the emergence of fungicide resistance, and the appearance of novel virulence alleles demonstrate the need for alternative methods for managing brown rot. Prior to infection, M. laxa can remain latent or quiescent on flowers and fruit surfaces until favorable host factors , and environmental factors and other characteristics intrinsic to the stone fruit variety, trigger the disease cycle. During fruit infection, M. laxa can overcome the need for wounds to infect and penetrate the plant cell. As a necrotrophic pathogen, M. laxa relies on the secretion of cell wall-degrading enzymes , such as pectin methyl esterases, and possibly phytotoxins, although these compounds have not been fully identified yet. After penetration, M. laxa colonizes the epidermis of the fruit with hyphae causing the collapse and disruption of cells, lysogenic cavities, and total degradation of the cuticle and epidermis, similar to the lesions caused by M. fructicola. Overall, fruit can be infected at any growth stage, but their susceptibility to brown rot increases with maturation, which results in a short post harvest life. Hence, the activation of immune responses alongside the physicochemical properties of the fruit may determine the pathogen’s ability to infect and spread.

Although these underlying mechanisms have not been fully elucidated, possible explanations could depend on changes in cell wall composition, volatiles, organic acids, and phenolic compounds. We hypothesize that M. laxa is able to adapt its infection strategies according to the nectarine developmental stage, resulting in either quiescent or disease progression, while the plant host can only establish effective defenses to restrict pathogen growth in fruit tissues that have not yet reached full maturity. Here, the fruit responses and pathogenicity mechanisms in the nectarine–M. laxa interaction were investigated as a function of the host developmental stage and time. Nectarine fruit was harvested at two different developmental stages and inoculated with M. laxa. Disease development and ethylene production were assessed for 3 days. Thanks to the recent availability of the M. laxa 8L genome, a comparative transcriptomics study was conducted on the nectarine–M. laxa pathosystem across four time points. This approach allowed us to identify not only host defense responses that were uniquely or highly induced in immature fruit during early infections,dutch buckets system which may partially explain why these tissues are resistant to brown rot, but also key strategies employed by the fungus to either become established in tissues or colonize them, which may be targeted to control brown rot.We visually assessed the development of brown rot over time at two maturity stages of nectarine . Quality parameters were measured and summarized in Supplementary Table S1. Overall, the disease progressed in mature tissues, while only surface discoloration was observed in immature tissues. At the mature stage, tissue maceration was observed on the surface of the fruit at 14 hpi followed by the pathogen penetration of the pericarp tissues between 14 and 24 hpi, and increasing lesion spread at 48 and 72 hpi. Fungal biomass was also estimated in both inoculated and control fruit to complement the visual assessments . Although no symptoms of brown rot disease were visible on the immature fruit surface at any time point, the M. laxa biomass increased from 6 to 14 hpi, when the highest quantity was detected, and then significantly decreased until 72 hpi. Although at early stages of infection , the fungal biomass was not significantly different between immature and mature tissues, it increased exponentially in the mature fruit at later time points, reaching levels approximately twenty times more than the maximum observed in immature fruit. In control tissues, a negligent quantity of the fungal biomass was detected across all time points in both stages. A dual RNA-Seq study revealed the dynamics of the fruit–pathogen interaction at early and late infection time points. The expression of 21,334 nectarine genes and 8364 M. laxa genes was detected across all developmental stages and time points .

The proportion of the total mapped reads for each sample that corresponded to M. laxa strongly correlated with the measurements of fungal biomass. Remarkably, more than 6000 genes were found to be expressed in inoculated immature fruit at 14 hpi and 24 hpi, indicating that the pathogen was active in these tissues but yet it could not cause disease. More genes were detected in mature fruit, increasing across time, from 6565 at 6 hpi up to 8287 at 48 hpi, reflecting the progression of pathogen growth and host tissue colonization.The principal component analyses revealed that in nectarine, PC1 and PC2 clearly separated the samples based on their developmental stage and infection status . Notably, at both development stages, 14 hpi was the time point when the inoculated samples appeared to experience a significant change in their expression profiles compared to the controls. These results demonstrate that early time points are critical for dictating the outcome of the interaction. For M. laxa, PC1 distinguished the samples based on the fruit developmental stage, while PC2 mainly divided the samples between early- and lateinoculation time points . In immature fruit, there was an evident switch in the pathogen’s transcriptional profile after 14 hpi, coinciding with the decrease in fungal biomass, and then continued to change up to 48 hpi. In mature fruit, M. laxa showed a change in gene expression between 6 and 14 hpi, when disease symptoms were first noticed on the fruit surface. Then, between 14 and 24 hpi, the pathogen altered its gene expression in mature fruit once again and retained most of these changes up to 48 hpi. Remarkably, the expression patterns of M. laxa at late time points of infection were highly divergent when infecting immature and mature tissues, suggesting that the pathogen utilizes different survival or infection mechanisms depending on the host developmental stage. A differential gene expression analysis was performed to determine the responses of immature and mature fruit to M. laxa, and to identify specific strategies used by the pathogen at specific times of infection. Nectarine DE genes  were identified in comparisons between inoculated and control fruit for each maturity stage and time point . A total of 4005 DEGs were detected in immature fruit across all time points, and of these the majority were upregulated in inoculated tissues. In immature fruit, the number of DEGs progressively increased over time and peaked at 24 hpi; then, the changes in gene expression appeared to reach a slightly lower plateau at 48 hpi. Mature fruit displayed a stronger transcriptional response to M. laxa infection since a total of 13,855 DEGs were detected at early and late time points. The number of DEGs in mature fruit continuously increased from 6 hpi to 48 hpi, indicating that the host tissues were undergoing a large transcriptional reprograming as the disease progressed. Monilinia laxa DEGs were detected by comparing the expression profiles of the fungus at each time point against 6 hpi for immature and mature fruit, respectively . These comparisons allowed us to depict how the pathogen modified its transcriptional response based on the initial time point of the interaction when gene expression profiles of M. laxa were similar between immature and mature fruit .To study host metabolic pathways altered during M. laxa progression, we performed a functional enrichment analysis for KEGG terms in the upregulated nectarine DEGs at each time point for immature and mature fruit . Figure 3a depicts KEGG terms that were significantly enriched in at least four out of the eight comparisons .

While many articles have attempted to describe the composition of complex bio-stimulants, these descriptions are frequently incomplete since the vast majority of biological molecules that would be present in crude extracts of complex origin, have not yet been characterized and the mere presence of a specific compound does not a priori demonstrate that compound is functional. The composition of most biologically derived bio-stimulant feed stock will also vary with the season of production, species, physiological state of the source organism and growth conditions. Indeed, there is an implication in the marketing of many bio-stimulants that stress conditions experienced by the plant or microbe utilized to produce the bio-stimulant, results in the production of stress metabolites and amino acids with consequent beneficial effects on plant response. In the absence of knowledge of the functional component of a bio-stimulant, changes in composition of a bio-stimulant over time and between batches and commercial sources cannot be interpreted. In the most rigorously prepared bio-stimulants from leading companies, high-throughput analytical methods have been employed to ensure consistent product quality . Methods such as chromatography, mass spectrometry, NMR spectroscopy, elemental analysis, ELISA, spectrophotometry, etc. are typically used for this purpose . The complexity of this challenge is illustrated in the analysis of a four-year algae composition sequence using a profile or finger print technique employing NMR .bio-stimulants have been used at all stages of agricultural production including as seed treatments,strawberry gutter system as foliar sprays during growth and on harvested products. The mode/mechanisms action of “bio-stimulants” is equally diverse and may include the activation of nitrogen metabolism or phosphorus release from soils, generic stimulation of soil microbial activity or stimulation of root growth and enhanced plant establishment.

Various bio-stimulants have been reported to stimulate plant growth by increasing plant metabolism, stimulating germination, enhancing photosynthesis, and increasing the absorption of nutrients from the soil thereby increasing plant productivity . bio-stimulants may also mitigate the negative effects of abiotic stress factors on plants and marked effects of bio-stimulants on the control of drought, heat, salinity, chilling, frost, oxidative, mechanical, and chemical stress, have been observed . Alleviation of abiotic stress is perhaps the most frequently cited benefit of bio-stimulant formulations. The following text describes the primary modes/mechanisms of action that have been demonstrated or claimed for bio-stimulants in the primary scientific literature.An example of a “mechanism of action” would be a stimulation of photosynthesis or the down regulation of a plant stress signaling pathway without an understanding of the explicit biochemical or molecular “mode of action.” For many bio-stimulant products, however, neither a specified mode of action, nor a known mechanism of action, has been identified. The presence of some spurious products in the marketplace compromises the market for all players resulting in the assumption by many, that bio-stimulants as a whole, are “snake oils” , a pejorative term implying the product is of no value. Multi-component bio-stimulants are particularly difficult to reconcile since they may have constituents for which the mode of action is known and components of no known functional benefit. Furthermore, multi-component bio-stimulants will frequently contain measureable but biologically irrelevant concentrations of known essential elements, amino acids, and plant hormones etc., for which the mode of action is known but the concentrations are irrelevant when used at recommended rates. Thus, for many of the multi-component bio-stimulant in the marketplace today, we propose that a demonstration of a clear “mechanism of action” is a more rationale and attainable regulatory goal than requiring an unequivocal demonstration of the “mode of action.”

Insight into the use of the terms “mode and mechanism” of action can be drawn from the pesticide science and pesticide development. In pesticide science, the “mechanism of action” describes the integral of all the biochemical events following application while the “mode of action” characterizes the main features of a bio-active molecule and its specific biochemical action leading to its effect in treated plants . In reference to plant bio-regulators, Halmann suggests that ideally an understanding of the mode of action of plant bio-regulators on the molecular level requires the identification of the receptor site for each regulator, as well as the elucidation of the subsequent reactions. In reality this standard is often not met in bio-pesticide or bio-stimulant products where the identification of the molecular targets of all bio-available compounds within a given extract cannot be easily achieved. The identification of the target binding sites of the natural bio-molecules has, however, proven to be helpful in the design of new insecticidal molecules with novel modes of action . At the present time, given the difficulty in determining a “mode of action” for a complex multi-component product such as a bio-stimulant, and recognizing the need for the market in bio-stimulants to attain legitimacy, we suggest that the focus of bio-stimulant research and validation should be upon determining the mechanism of action, without a requirement for the determination of a mode of action. This is the standard of practice for many pharmacological products. With the development of advanced analytical equipment, bio-informatics, systems biology and other fundamentally new methodologies a more complete understanding of the mechanisms and even possible modes of action of these materials may be achieved in the future. While this proposal suggests that the development and marketing of a bio-stimulant may not require a demonstration of the mode of action, it is still in the interest of the manufacturers of these products to pursue an understanding of the mode of action so that the product can be improved and the use can be optimized for various environments and cropping systems.This is primarily due to the heterogeneous nature of raw materials used for production and the complex mixtures of components contained in bio-stimulant products which makes it almost impossible to identify exactly the component responsible for biological activity and to determine the involved mode of action .

Therefore, focus should be upon the identification of the “mechanisms of action” of bio-stimulants as indicated by general positive impacts on plant productivity through enhancement in processes such as photosynthesis, senescence, modulation of phytohormones, uptake of nutrients and water, and activation of genes responsible for resistance to abiotic stresses and altered plant architecture and phenology . An example of this process is the advances in use of protein-based bio-stimulants for which recent studies have identified the target metabolic pathways and some of the mechanisms through which they exert their effects on plants . To further our understanding of modes/mechanisms of bio-stimulant action we have systematized the stages of bio-stimulants action on plants after their application: penetration into tissues, translocation and transformation in plants, gene expression, plant signaling and the regulation of hormonal status, metabolic processes and integrated whole plant effects. The penetration of amino acids and peptide based bio-stimulants into plant tissues has been investigated using radiolabeled amino acids and mathematical modeling . The components of a bio-stimulant preparation of animal origin,grow strawberry in containers labeled with 14C proline and glycine, were shown to penetrate rapidly into treated leaves and where subsequently distributed to other leaves . The mathematical model based on the “mechanism of diffusion” allows the estimation of the time required for the absorption of a minimal amount of the active component of a bio-stimulant. Furthermore, it describes the process of its transport from the moment of penetration into the leaf until the arrival at more distant tissues . The penetration of protein hydrolysates into a plant tissues occurs via diffusion of protein molecules through membrane pores and is energy-dependent . bio-stimulants must have a good solubility in water or other suitable solvents. This is a precondition for most types of application and for sufficient penetration of active ingredients into internal structures of treated plants. Surfactants and other additives may be required to overcome solubility and uptake limitations including lipophilicity and molecular size of active components . Ultimately a full understanding of the biological activity of complex bio-stimulant preparations will require a detailed understanding of the mechanism of action and effects on plant productivity and the identification of the biologically active molecules and their molecular mode of action . A wide array of molecular methods has been used to attempt to discern the active compounds found in bio-stimulants including microarrays, metabolomics, proteomic, and transcriptomics methods. These technologies have been applied to bio-stimulants to probe changes in gene expression following the application of bio-stimulants . Further research on the effects of complex bio-stimulants and their components on the complete genome/transcriptome of plants will be required to understand the mechanisms of action involved in growth responses and stress mitigation . The search for the mode of action of bio-stimulants is complicated by the observation that many bio-stimulants have been shown to induce genes and benefit productivity only when plants are challenged by abiotic and biotic stress. Experimental methods must therefore be developed to produce relevant and reproducible stress conditions so that the application of any molecular tool to probe gene function produces results that are relevant to the purported effects on plant productivity. The role of signaling molecules in plant response to environmental cues has been an area of active research in plant biology. The process of signal transmission involves the synthesis of signaling molecules , their translocation, their binding to receptors, the resulting cellular responses, and, finally, the degradation of the signaling molecules . When the signaling molecule binds to its receptor, the initial cellular response is the activation of secondary messengers, or intracellular signaling mediators, which cause a further series of cellular responses. Among the substances that may act as secondary messengers are: lipids, sugars, ions, nucleotides, gases, Ca2+, cAMP, cGMP, cyclic ADP-ribose, small GTPase, 1,2-diacylglycerol, inositol-1,4,5- triphosphate, nitric oxide, phosphoinosides, and others . Generally, a membranemediated action is typical for water-soluble compounds, while cytosol-mediated activity is primarily triggered by lipophilic compounds.

Whereas, enzymes interact with their substrates in a geometrical way , signaling molecules are thought to have a topochemical affinity to their receptors. It is assumed that the interaction of such components at the receptor site is cooperative and quantized . The bioactive compounds in some bio-stimulants are also proposed to display signaling activity in plants or induce signaling pathways. Various amino acids , and peptides function as signaling molecules in the regulation of plant growth and development . Peptide signaling is important in various aspects of plant development and growth regulation including meristem organization, leaf morphogenesis, and defense responses to biotic and abiotic stress . specific signaling peptides contained in a plant-derived protein hydrolysate have been shown to affect plant growth and development, defense responses, callus growth, meristem organization, root growth, leaf-shape regulation, and nodule development . Protein hydrolysates from soybean and casein have been shown to act as elicitors to enhance grapevine immunity against Plasmopara viticola . Proteins may also contain hidden peptide sites, “cryptides” or “crypteins” in their amino acid sequence, which may have their own biological activities, distinct from its precursor . Evidence that cryptides can trigger plants defense reactions have recently been demonstrated and there are reports of the isolation of cryptides by hydrolysis of proteins from marine organisms, including seaweeds, and cryptides may be present naturally in a variety of biological derived products .Exogenous amino acids may affect biological processes by acting directly as signal molecules or by influencing hormone action via amino acid conjugation . It has been suggested that amino acid based bio-stimulants are readily absorbed and translocated by plant tissues and once absorbed, they have the capacity to function as compatible osmolytes, transport regulators, signaling molecules, modulators of stomatal opening, and may detoxify heavy metals among other benefits . Sugars and fatty acids and plant lipids are also known to act as signaling molecules and mitigators of stress response in plants . Animal based lipid soluble fractions, have also been observed to produce an auxin-like response , while sugars, sucrose, and its cleavage products , are also known to act as signaling molecules through regulation of gene expression and by interaction with other hormone signals including auxins. In a sunflower meal hydrolyzate, amino acids, humic substances, microelements, and sugars present in the bio-stimulant appeared to coordinate, with auxin-like compounds in complex signaling cross-talk promoting plant growth, enhancing plant transplanting success and increasing final crop yield .