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APS > Education > K-12 > Lessons and Laboratories > Classroom Activities in
Plant Biotechnology > Activity 7 - Effect of Environment on Plant Growth

Activity 7: Effect of Environment on

Plant Growth
The purpose of this activity is to demonstrate the effect of changes in the
environment on the growth and fertility of landscape grasses and crop grasses such
Lessons and
as wheat and rice. You will place the plants in environments such as high salinity,
Labs
cold, heat, or drought and observe the different reactions of the plants to these
Plant
conditions. Students will compare the growth of treated plants to that of the control
Biotech
plants which are grown under optimal conditions. You will then discuss the
Activities
desirability of breeding new types of plants that are better able to withstand these
Home
changes if they occur in the general environment.
What is
DNA?
Diseases
History Objective
Health
Environment
1. To plant, grow and maintain plants under different environmental treatment
Activities
conditions.
Conclusions
2. To observe differences in plant growth between these treatments.
3. To compare the growth of treated plants with the growth of control plants.

Background
Breeding plants that are able to survive in different environmental conditions or
when attacked by diseases or pests has occurred for thousands of years as people
gradually domesticated the plants that they needed to use for food or as
ornamentals. Generally this breeding involved identifying a trait in another related
species that could then be used as the donor of this trait to the domestic plant they
wished to improve. In traditional plant breeding, the two species would be crossed
either naturally or artificially to produce a hybrid plant that contained genes from
both parents. These hybrids were screened to see which of them contained the gene
for the trait of interest. The selected hybrids were backcrossed to the domestic
parent over many generations with selection at each step for the trait of interest.
This ultimately results in a new plant that contains DNA mainly from the original
domestic parent but also a small amount of DNA from the donor that encompasses
the gene that we desired to transfer. As you can imagine this procedure is very
expensive and time consuming and it is many years before a new plant is ready to
be released to the general population. A second drawback with this procedure is
that there is inevitably some DNA present in the new plant that arose from the
donor parent that may not be desirable.

A second method of breeding involves the use of biotechnology. Some of the

laboratory techniques that you have learned in this program in the activities DNA
extraction, restriction digestion, plant tissue culture, transformation and PCR are
utilized in this type of breeding. The gene for the trait that we are interested in may
be identified in either a related species or even a totally different genus or family.
For instance a gene from a fish that is able to survive in very cold conditions has
been bred into soybean so that the plants are now able to survive in much colder
environments than the original soybean. The specific DNA that contains just the
gene of interest can be cut out of the donor organism's DNA, cloned and prepared
for insertion into the recipient plant. Transformation procedures are utilized to
move the gene into the recipient and new plants are grown in tissue culture before
moving into the greenhouse and the field. Selection methods are used during tissue
culture to select only plants that have the new gene in their cells and thus these are
the only ones that continue through the whole procedure. Once plants are mature
enough to be planted in the field or greenhouse some of the more traditional
methods of plant breeding are used to increase the number of plants, to test that the
gene functions correctly under the relevant conditions, to determine if the new
gene is stably inherited and, most importantly, to check that the new plants do not
have a detrimental effect on either the environment or other plants and organisms.

Materials
 25 germinated seeds of wheat or rice
 16 10-cm (4") pots
 Potting soil/peat moss mixed 1:1
 5 small containers to hold pots
 Aquarium or other clear container with lid or top
 Table salt (NaCl)
 Scale to weigh NaCl
 1-liter measuring cylinder, volumetric flask or kitchen measuring jug
 Full spectrum grow-lights if necessary
  Use of refrigerator or cold room

Procedure
Note: The seeds must be germinated and planted at least 5 weeks before beginning
the experiment. If you only want your students to see the results of the treatments,
then you should begin at least 7 weeks before the class period is to occur.

1. Germinate 15-20 rice seeds by first washing in 10% bleach for 5 minutes
and then rinsing 3 times in sterile distilled water. Place the seeds in a petri
dish that has a filter paper in the bottom. Moisten the filter paper with
sterile distilled water until it is very wet and place in a warm area,
preferably an incubator set at 28°C or in an area that is warmed by the sun.
Seed should germinate within 5-7 days.

2. Plant one seed per 4” pot that is filled with potting soil mixed with equal
parts of peat moss. Gently cover the seed until just the top part of the
coleoptile (shoot) is visible. Water well and place in a well lit, warm
environment such as an incubator or a warm windowsill (but protect from
any cold drafts). Keep moist.

3. Make sure that the plants receive at least 12 hours of light per day. (If you
are using rice seeds, once the new plants have begun to fully emerge after
about 10 days, the pots can be placed into a container so that flood
irrigation can begin. Flood irrigation involves filling the container with
water until it is about 1/3 of the distance up the side of the pots. About once
per week a small amount of fertilizer (follow the directions for potted
plants for whichever fertilizer you choose) should be added to the water
used to refill this container. The solution in the container should be
completely changed every week before the fertilizer water is added and
then topped up during the rest of the week). Wheat seedlings should be
watered daily to maintain constant moisture in the soil, and fertilizer should
be added about once per week.

4. When the plants are 5 weeks old you can begin the environmental stress
demonstration.

5. Choose the ten best plants that are of approximately the same height and
with the same number of leaves. The remaining plants can be discarded or
kept for backup if something goes wrong with one of the treatments.

6. Two of the plants will be control plants that will continue to be flood
irrigated, with fertilizer added once every week. Make sure that the plants
have at least 12 hours of sunlight or artificial full spectrum “grow-lights”
 per day.

7. Separate the remaining eight plants into four groups so that there will be
two plants for each treatment. Label two pots “drought”, two pots “cold”,
two pots “saline” and the remaining two “heat”. All pots should be placed
in containers so that irrigation can continue during the treatment as
necessary. Each treatment will last for 5-14 days, depending on the
responses you have in your classroom situation.

Treat as follows:

1. DROUGHT - Maintain these plants in the same environment as the

control plants but do not add any water to the container for 3 days.
This will allow the pots to dry out at which point the drought
treatment will begin. Do not irrigate for a further 5 days. Irrigate
normally for 2 days and then repeat the drought treatment for
another 5 day cycle.

2. COLD - Place these plants in a refrigerator or other cold room

(<10°C) for 10-14 days but continue to provide light, water and
nutrients as for the control plants

3. SALINE - Make a 100 mM NaCl solution+ to use for irrigation.

This should provide a solution that has a conductivity of
approximately 10-12 dS/m). Irrigate the plants constantly with this
solution for 14 days but be sure to keep all the other growth
conditions the same as those of the control plants.

4. HEAT - Place the plant inside an aquarium or clear plastic

container, cover and place on a warm windowsill or under grow
lights. The temperature in the enclosed container needs to rise to
above 35°C. Keep all other environmental conditions the same and
be careful not to release too much heat from the container when you
are changing the irrigation solution. Grow the plants in this
environment for 14 days.

5. CONTROL - Keep these plants in the same environment as they

were, making sure that there is still at least 12 hours of daylight
and/or supplemental artificial light. The plants should remain flood
irrigated and treated with fertilizer each week until the end of the
experiment.
+
You can have the class work out how to make this solution as part of a
chemistry or mathematics lesson. A 1Molar solution contains 1 mole of the
solute dissolved into 1 liter of water. 1 mole of NaCl contains 58.44 grams
i.e. number of grams equivalent to the formula weight of NaCl. So, to make
100 mM we need to take 58.44/10 grams of NaCl. (100mM = 1M/10 or
 1000mM/10). So you need to dissolve 5.844 grams of NaCl in water and
then make the volume up to 1 liter for each liter of saline solution that your
container will hold.

8. Have students record their observations. Note height of plants, number of

new leaves, degree of wilting, color of leaves, and any other symptoms
such as spots on leaves, browning of leaf tips, for example. When all the
treatments are complete and observations noted, you may remove the
plants from the pots, wash the roots carefully and measure the length of the
roots.
9. Have students complete the activity sheet.

Examples of expected results:

Control Saline Drought Cold Heat

Control Saline Drought

 Cold Heat

Some other questions to have students consider:

What do you think are important tools for improving our ability to feed the world?

Are there technologies that you think should not be used?

Find out how you could become a scientist who has the power to change children’s
lives by providing growers with the tools to grow nutritious food necessary for the
healthy development of our children.

Student Activity: Effect of Environment on Plant

Growth

1. Inspect all of the plants that your teacher has prepared for this
demonstration and record your observations in the chart below. Record
separate information for each of the two plants in each treatment and each
of the controls

Treatment Plant No. of Wilting? Color Other stress Root

height leaves Yes/No of symptoms length
leaves
1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2
1 2
Control
 Drought
Cold
Saline
Heat

2. Compute the average for each category of measurements (plant height,

number of leaves, root length) for each treatment and for the control.

3. The vigor of a plant is directly correlated with its ability to flower and to
set viable seeds. If crops such as wheat and rice are forced to grow in areas
that are affected by environmental changes such as increased heat, cold, or
drought, what do you think will happen to the production of seeds and
other plant parts for human and animal consumption?

4. Salinity of soils is increasing across many regions of the world, particularly

in areas that are prone to drought and have low natural precipitation. As the
limited water evaporates from the soil, any minerals contained in the water
become more concentrated in the soil near the surface and thus affect crop
growth. Similarly, as soils become poorer in quality we add more fertilizers
to them and this also results in an increase in the salt level of the soil.
Given your observations of plants grown in a saline environment, what do
you think will happen to world food production as soil salinity changes?

5. Discuss how you think biotechnology could be used to increase food

production throughout the world if our climate and hence the plant's
growing environment are altered. Do you agree or disagree that the use of
biotechnology is justified? Explain your answer and present alternative
plans of action that you think could be used to solve these problems.

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Drought
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Drought (disambiguation).

Contraction/Desiccation cracks in dry earth (Sonoran desert, Mexico).

A drought is a period of below-average precipitation in a given region, resulting in prolonged

shortages in the water supply, whether atmospheric, surface water or ground water. A drought
can last for months or years, or may be declared after as few as 15 days.[1] It can have a
substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region[2] and harm to the local
economy.[3] Annual dry seasons in the tropics significantly increase the chances of a drought
developing and subsequent bush fires. Periods of heat can significantly worsen drought
conditions by hastening evaporation of water vapour.

Many plant species, such as those in the family Cactaceae (or cacti), have drought tolerance
adaptations like reduced leaf area and waxy cuticles to enhance their ability to tolerate drought.
Some others survive dry periods as buried seeds. Semi-permanent drought produces arid biomes
such as deserts and grasslands.[4] Prolonged droughts have caused mass migrations and
humanitarian crises. Most arid ecosystems have inherently low productivity. The most prolonged
drought ever in the world in recorded history occurred in the Atacama Desert in Chile (400
Years).[5]

Contents
 1 Causes of drought
o 1.1 Precipitation deficiency
o 1.2 Dry season
o 1.3 El Niño
o 1.4 Erosion and human activities
o 1.5 Climate change
 2 Types
  3 Consequences of drought
 4 Globally
o 4.1 Examples
 5 Protection, mitigation and relief
 6 See also
 7 References
 8 External links

Causes of drought
Precipitation deficiency

See also: Precipitation

Play media
Ancient Meso-American civilizations may have amplified droughts by deforestation.

Mechanisms of producing precipitation include convective, stratiform,[6] and orographic

rainfall.[7] Convective processes involve strong vertical motions that can cause the overturning of
the atmosphere in that location within an hour and cause heavy precipitation,[8] while stratiform
processes involve weaker upward motions and less intense precipitation over a longer duration.[9]
Precipitation can be divided into three categories, based on whether it falls as liquid water, liquid
water that freezes on contact with the surface, or ice. Droughts occur mainly in areas where
normal levels of rainfall are, in themselves, low. If these factors do not support precipitation
volumes sufficient to reach the surface over a sufficient time, the result is a drought. Drought can
be triggered by a high level of reflected sunlight and above average prevalence of high pressure
systems, winds carrying continental, rather than oceanic air masses, and ridges of high pressure
areas aloft can prevent or restrict the developing of thunderstorm activity or rainfall over one
certain region. Once a region is within drought, feedback mechanisms such as local arid air,[10]
hot conditions which can promote warm core ridging,[11] and minimal evapotranspiration can
worsen drought conditions.

Dry season

See also: Dry season

Sheep on a drought affected paddock near Uranquinty, New South Wales.

Within the tropics, distinct, wet and dry seasons emerge due to the movement of the Intertropical
Convergence Zone or Monsoon trough.[12] The dry season greatly increases drought
occurrence,[13] and is characterized by its low humidity, with watering holes and rivers drying up.
Because of the lack of these watering holes, many grazing animals are forced to migrate due to
the lack of water and feed to more fertile spots. Examples of such animals are zebras,
elephants,[14] and wildebeest. Because of the lack of water in the plants, bushfires are
common.[15] Since water vapor becomes more energetic with increasing temperature, more water
vapor is required to increase relative humidity values to 100% at higher temperatures (or to get
the temperature to fall to the dew point).[16] Periods of warmth quicken the pace of fruit and
vegetable production,[17] increase evaporation and transpiration from plants,[18] and worsen
drought conditions.[19]

El Niño

Regional impacts of warm ENSO episodes (El Niño)

See also: El Niño

Drier and hotter weather occurs in parts of the Amazon River Basin, Colombia, and Central
America during El Niño events. Winters during the El Niño are warmer and drier than average
conditions in the Northwest, northern Midwest, and northern Mideast United States, so those
regions experience reduced snowfalls. Conditions are also drier than normal from December to
February in south-central Africa, mainly in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Botswana.
Direct effects of El Niño resulting in drier conditions occur in parts of Southeast Asia and
Northern Australia, increasing bush fires, worsening haze, and decreasing air quality
dramatically. Drier-than-normal conditions are also in general observed in Queensland, inland
Victoria, inland New South Wales, and eastern Tasmania from June to August. As warm water
spreads from the west Pacific and the Indian Ocean to the east Pacific, it causes extensive
drought in the western Pacific. Singapore experienced the driest February in 2014 since records
began in 1869, with only 6.3 mm of rain falling in the month and temperatures hitting as high as
35 °C on 26 February. The years 1968 and 2005 had the next driest Februaries, when 8.4 mm of
rain fell.[20]

Erosion and human activities

See also: Aeolian processes

Fires on Borneo and Sumatra, 2006. People use slash-and-burn deforestation to clear land for
agriculture.

Human activity can directly trigger exacerbating factors such as over farming, excessive
irrigation,[21] deforestation, and erosion adversely impact the ability of the land to capture and
hold water.[22] In arid climates, the main source of erosion is wind.[23] Erosion can be the result of
material movement by the wind. The wind can cause small particles to be lifted and therefore
moved to another region (deflation). Suspended particles within the wind may impact on solid
objects causing erosion by abrasion (ecological succession). Wind erosion generally occurs in
areas with little or no vegetation, often in areas where there is insufficient rainfall to support
vegetation.[24]

Fields outside Benambra, Victoria, Australia suffering from drought conditions.

Loess is a homogeneous, typically nonstratified, porous, friable, slightly coherent, often

calcareous, fine-grained, silty, pale yellow or buff, windblown (Aeolian) sediment.[25] It
generally occurs as a widespread blanket deposit that covers areas of hundreds of square
kilometers and tens of meters thick. Loess often stands in either steep or vertical faces.[26] Loess
tends to develop into highly rich soils. Under appropriate climatic conditions, areas with loess
are among the most agriculturally productive in the world.[27] Loess deposits are geologically
unstable by nature, and will erode very readily. Therefore, windbreaks (such as big trees and
bushes) are often planted by farmers to reduce the wind erosion of loess.[23] Wind erosion is
much more severe in arid areas and during times of drought. For example, in the Great Plains, it
is estimated that soil loss due to wind erosion can be as much as 6100 times greater in drought
years than in wet years.[28]

Climate change

See also: Climate change

Activities resulting in global climate change are expected to trigger droughts with a substantial
impact on agriculture[29][30] throughout the world, and especially in developing nations.[31][32][33]
Overall, global warming will result in increased world rainfall.[34] Along with drought in some
areas, flooding and erosion will increase in others. Paradoxically, some proposed solutions to
global warming that focus on more active techniques, solar radiation management through the
use of a space sunshade for one, may also carry with them increased chances of drought.[35]

Types
As a drought persists, the conditions surrounding it gradually worsen and its impact on the local
population gradually increases. People tend to define droughts in three main ways: [36]

1. Meteorological drought is brought about when there is a prolonged time with less than
average precipitation. Meteorological drought usually precedes the other kinds of
drought.[37]
2. Agricultural droughts affect crop production or the ecology of the range. This condition
can also arise independently from any change in precipitation levels when soil conditions
and erosion triggered by poorly planned agricultural endeavors cause a shortfall in water
available to the crops. However, in a traditional drought, it is caused by an extended
period of below average precipitation.[38]
3. Hydrological drought is brought about when the water reserves available in sources such
as aquifers, lakes and reservoirs fall below the statistical average. Hydrological drought
tends to show up more slowly because it involves stored water that is used but not
replenished. Like an agricultural drought, this can be triggered by more than just a loss of
rainfall. For instance, Kazakhstan was recently[when?] awarded a large amount of money
by the World Bank to restore water that had been diverted to other nations from the Aral
Sea under Soviet rule.[39] Similar circumstances also place their largest lake, Balkhash, at
risk of completely drying out.[40]

Consequences of drought
A Mongolian gazelle dead due to drought.

The effects of droughts and water shortages can be divided into three groups: environmental,
economic and social consequences. In the case of environmental effects: lower surface and
subterranean water levels, lower flow levels (with a decrease below the minimum leading to
direct danger for amphibian life), increased pollution of surface water, the drying out of
wetlands, more and larger fires, higher deflation intensity, losing biodiversity, worse health of
trees and the appearance of pests and den droid diseases. Economic losses include lower
agricultural, forests, game and fishing output, higher food production costs, lower energy
production levels in hydro plants, losses caused by depleted water tourism and transport revenue,
problems with water supply for the energy sector and technological processes in metallurgy,
mining, the chemical, paper, wood, foodstuff industries etc., disruption of water supplies for
municipal economies. Meanwhile, social costs include the negative effect on the health of people
directly exposed to this phenomenon (excessive heat waves), possible limitation of water
supplies and its increased pollution levels, high food costs, stress caused by failed harvests, etc.
This is why droughts and fresh water shortages may be considered as a factor which increases
the gap between developed and developing countries.[41]

The effect varies according to vulnerability. For example, subsistence farmers are more likely to
migrate during drought because they do not have alternative food sources. Areas with
populations that depend on water sources as a major food source are more vulnerable to famine.

Drought can also reduce water quality,[42][43] because lower water flows reduce dilution of
pollutants and increase contamination of remaining water sources. Common consequences of
drought include:

 Diminished crop growth or yield productions and carrying capacity for livestock
 Dust bowls, themselves a sign of erosion, which further erode the landscape
 Dust storms, when drought hits an area suffering from desertification and erosion
  Famine due to lack of water for irrigation
 Habitat damage, affecting both terrestrial and aquatic wildlife[44]
 Hunger, drought provides too little water to support food crops.
 Malnutrition, dehydration and related diseases
 Mass migration, resulting in internal displacement and international refugees
 Reduced electricity production due to reduced water flow through hydroelectric dams[45]
 Shortages of water for industrial users[46][47]
 Snake migration, which results in snakebites[48]
 Social unrest
 War over natural resources, including water and food
 Wildfires, such as Australian bushfires, are more common during times of drought and
even death of people.[49]
 Exposure and oxidation of acid sulfate soils due to falling surface and groundwater
levels.[50][51][52]
 Cyanotoxin accumulation within food chains and water supply, some of which are among
the most potent toxins known to science, can cause cancer with low exposure over long
term.[53] High levels of microcystin has been found in San Francisco Bay Area salt water
shellfish and fresh water supplies throughout the state of California in 2016.

Globally
Drought is a normal, recurring feature of the climate in most parts of the world. It is among the
earliest documented climatic events, present in the Epic of Gilgamesh and tied to the biblical
story of Joseph's arrival in and the later Exodus from Ancient Egypt.[54] Hunter-gatherer
migrations in 9,500 BC Chile have been linked to the phenomenon,[55] as has the exodus of early
humans out of Africa and into the rest of the world around 135,000 years ago.[56]

A South Dakota farm during the Dust Bowl, 1936

Examples

Main article: List of droughts

Well-known historical droughts include:

 1900 India killing between 250,000 and 3.25 million.

 1921–22 Soviet Union in which over 5 million perished from starvation due to drought
  1928–30 Northwest China resulting in over 3 million deaths by famine.
 1936 and 1941 Sichuan Province China resulting in 5 million and 2.5 million deaths
respectively.
 The 1997–2009 Millennium Drought in Australia led to a water supply crisis across much
of the country. As a result, many desalination plants were built for the first time (see list).
 In 2006, Sichuan Province China experienced its worst drought in modern times with
nearly 8 million people and over 7 million cattle facing water shortages.
 12-year drought that was devastating southwest Western Australia, southeast South
Australia, Victoria and northern Tasmania was "very severe and without historical
precedent".

Affected areas in the western Sahel belt during the 2012 drought.

The Darfur conflict in Sudan, also affecting Chad, was fueled by decades of drought;
combination of drought, desertification and overpopulation are among the causes of the Darfur
conflict, because the Arab Baggara nomads searching for water have to take their livestock
further south, to land mainly occupied by non-Arab farming people.[57]

Approximately 2.4 billion people live in the drainage basin of the Himalayan rivers.[58] India,
China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar could experience floods followed by droughts
in coming decades. Drought in India affecting the Ganges is of particular concern, as it provides
drinking water and agricultural irrigation for more than 500 million people.[59][60][61] The west
coast of North America, which gets much of its water from glaciers in mountain ranges such as
the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada, also would be affected.[62][63]

Drought affected area in Karnataka, India in 2012.

In 2005, parts of the Amazon basin experienced the worst drought in 100 years.[64][65] A 23 July
2006 article reported Woods Hole Research Center results showing that the forest in its present
form could survive only three years of drought.[66][67] Scientists at the Brazilian National Institute
of Amazonian Research argue in the article that this drought response, coupled with the effects
of deforestation on regional climate, are pushing the rainforest towards a "tipping point" where it
would irreversibly start to die. It concludes that the rainforest is on the brink of being turned into
savanna or desert, with catastrophic consequences for the world's climate. According to the
WWF, the combination of climate change and deforestation increases the drying effect of dead
trees that fuels forest fires.[68]

Lake Chad in a 2001 satellite image. The lake has shrunk by 95% since the 1960s.[69][70]

By far the largest part of Australia is desert or semi-arid lands commonly known as the outback.
A 2005 study by Australian and American researchers investigated the desertification of the
interior, and suggested that one explanation was related to human settlers who arrived about
50,000 years ago. Regular burning by these settlers could have prevented monsoons from
reaching interior Australia.[71] In June 2008 it became known that an expert panel had warned of
long term, maybe irreversible, severe ecological damage for the whole Murray-Darling basin if it
did not receive sufficient water by October 2008.[72] Australia could experience more severe
droughts and they could become more frequent in the future, a government-commissioned report
said on July 6, 2008.[73] Australian environmentalist Tim Flannery, predicted that unless it made
drastic changes, Perth in Western Australia could become the world’s first ghost metropolis, an
abandoned city with no more water to sustain its population.[74] The long Australian Millennial
drought broke in 2010.

Recurring droughts leading to desertification in East Africa have created grave ecological
catastrophes, prompting food shortages in 1984–85, 2006 and 2011.[75] During the 2011 drought,
an estimated 50,000 to 150,000 people were reported to have died,[76] though these figures and
the extent of the crisis are disputed.[77] In February 2012, the UN announced that the crisis was
over due to a scaling up of relief efforts and a bumper harvest.[78] Aid agencies subsequently
shifted their emphasis to recovery efforts, including digging irrigation canals and distributing
plant seeds.[78]

In 2012, a severe drought struck the western Sahel. The Methodist Relief & Development Fund
(MRDF) reported that more than 10 million people in the region were at risk of famine due to a
month-long heat wave that was hovering over Niger, Mali, Mauritania and Burkina Faso. A fund
of about £20,000 was distributed to the drought-hit countries.[79]

Protection, mitigation and relief

Succulent plants are well-adapted to survive long periods of drought.

Water distribution on Marshall Islands during El Niño.

Agriculturally, people can effectively mitigate much of the impact of drought through irrigation
and crop rotation. Failure to develop adequate drought mitigation strategies carries a grave
human cost in the modern era, exacerbated by ever-increasing population densities. President
Roosevelt on April 27, 1935, signed documents creating the Soil Conservation Service (SCS)—
now the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Models of the law were sent to each
state where they were enacted. These were the first enduring practical programs to curtail future
susceptibility to drought, creating agencies that first began to stress soil conservation measures to
protect farm lands today. It was not until the 1950s that there was an importance placed on water
conservation was put into the existing laws (NRCS 2014).[80]
Aerosols over the Amazon each September for four burning seasons (2005 through 2008) during
the Amazon basin drought. The aerosol scale (yellow to dark reddish-brown) indicates the
relative amount of particles that absorb sunlight.

Strategies for drought protection, mitigation or relief include:

 Dams - many dams and their associated reservoirs supply additional water in times of
drought.[81]
 Cloud seeding - a form of intentional weather modification to induce rainfall.[82] This
remains a hotly debated topic, as the United States National Research Council released a
report in 2004 stating that to date, there is still no convincing scientific proof of the
efficacy of intentional weather modification.[83]
 Desalination - of sea water for irrigation or consumption.[84]
 Drought monitoring - Continuous observation of rainfall levels and comparisons with
current usage levels can help prevent man-made drought. For instance, analysis of water
usage in Yemen has revealed that their water table (underground water level) is put at
grave risk by over-use to fertilize their Khat crop.[85] Careful monitoring of moisture
levels can also help predict increased risk for wildfires, using such metrics as the Keetch-
Byram Drought Index[49] or Palmer Drought Index.
 Land use - Carefully planned crop rotation can help to minimize erosion and allow
farmers to plant less water-dependent crops in drier years.
 Outdoor water-use restriction - Regulating the use of sprinklers, hoses or buckets on
outdoor plants, filling pools, and other water-intensive home maintenance tasks.
Xeriscaping yards can significantly reduce unnecessary water use by residents of towns
and cities.
 Rainwater harvesting - Collection and storage of rainwater from roofs or other suitable
catchments.
 Recycled water - Former wastewater (sewage) that has been treated and purified for
reuse.
 Transvasement - Building canals or redirecting rivers as massive attempts at irrigation in
drought-prone areas.

See also
 Aridity index
 Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
 Drought refuge
 FEMA
 Food security
 Leaf Sensor
 Permanent wilting point
 Thirst
 Topsoil
 United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
 Water conflict
 Water crisis
  World Water Day
 World Water Forum

Regional:

 Amazon Rainforest drought

 Australia, Exceptional Circumstances relief payments
 China (2010)
 Spain
 Maya civilization collapse
 Russia and USSR
 Sahel drought
 United Kingdom
 United States
 US dust bowl drought (1930s)

References
1.

 It's a scorcher - and Ireland is officially 'in drought' Irish Independent, 2013-07-18.
  Living With Drought Archived 2007-02-18 at the Wayback Machine.
  Australian Drought and Climate Change, retrieved on June 7th 2007.
  Keddy, P.A. 2007. (https://www.amazon.com/Plants-Vegetation-Origins-Processes-
Consequences/dp/0521864801 Plants and Vegetation: Origins, Processes, Consequences).
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 666 p.
  "Driest Place: Atacama Desert, Chile". Extreme Science. Retrieved September 25, 2016..
  Emmanouil N. Anagnostou (2004). "A convective/stratiform precipitation classification
algorithm for volume scanning weather radar observations". Meteorological Applications.
Cambridge University Press. 11 (4): 291–300. Bibcode:2004MeApp..11..291A.
doi:10.1017/S1350482704001409.
  A.J. Dore; M. Mousavi-Baygi; R.I. Smith; J. Hall; D. Fowler; T.W. Choularton (June 2006).
"A model of annual orographic precipitation and acid deposition and its application to
Snowdonia". Atmospheric Environment. 40 (18): 3316–3326. Bibcode:2006AtmEn..40.3316D.
doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2006.01.043.
  Robert Penrose Pearce (2002). Meteorology at the Millennium. Academic Press. p. 66.
ISBN 978-0-12-548035-2. Retrieved 2009-01-02.
  Robert A. Houze, Jr. (1994-06-28). Cloud Dynamics. Academic Press. p. 348.
ISBN 0080502105. Retrieved 2015-02-18.
  Roland Paepe; Rhodes Whitmore Fairbridge; Saskia Jelgersma (1990). Greenhouse Effect,
Sea Level and Drought. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 22. ISBN 0792310179. Retrieved
2015-02-18.
  Joseph S. D'Aleo; Pamela G. Grube (2002). The Oryx Resource Guide to El Niño and La
Niña. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 48–49. ISBN 1573563781. Retrieved 2015-02-18.
  Bin Wang (2006-01-13). The Asian Monsoon. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 206.
ISBN 3540406107. Retrieved 2008-05-03.
  Vijendra K. Boken; Arthur P. Cracknell; Ronald L. Heathcote (2005-03-24). Monitoring
and Predicting Agricultural Drought : A Global Study: A Global Study. Oxford University Press.
p. 349. ISBN 0198036787. Retrieved 2015-02-18.
  TONY RENNELL (June 29, 2007). "It's dry season and elephants are desperately seeking
water - but poachers lie in wait". London: Daily Mail.
  "Wet & Dry Seasons".
  Alistair B. Fraser (1994-11-27). "Bad Meteorology: The reason clouds form when air cools
is because cold air cannot hold as much water vapor as warm air". Retrieved 2015-02-17.
  Cooperative Extension Service (January 2014). Home Vegetable Gardening in Kentucky
(PDF). University of Kentucky. p. 19. Retrieved 2015-02-18.
  North Carolina State University (2013-08-09). "Evapotranspiration". Retrieved 2015-02-
18.
  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (2002-05-16). "Warm Temperatures and
Severe Drought Continued in April Throughout Parts of the United States; Global Temperature
For April Second Warmest on Record". Retrieved 2015-02-18.
  [1]
  "A biblical tragedy as Sea of Galilee faces drought". BelfastTelegraph.co.uk.
  "Kenya: Deforestation exacerbates droughts, floods". forests.org.
  Vern Hofman; Dave Franzen (1997). "Emergency Tillage to Control Wind Erosion". North
Dakota State University Extension Service. Retrieved 2009-03-21.
  United States Geological Survey (2004). "Dunes – Getting Started". Retrieved 2009-03-21.
  F. von Richthofen (1882). "On the mode of origin of the loess". Geological Magazine
(Decade II). 9 (7): 293–305. doi:10.1017/S001675680017164X.
  K.E.K. Neuendorf; J.P. Mehl, Jr.; J.A. Jackson (2005). Glossary of Geology. Springer-
Verlag, New York. p. 779. ISBN 3-540-27951-2.
  Arthur Getis; Judith Getis and Jerome D. Fellmann (2000). Introduction to Geography,
Seventh Edition. McGraw-Hill. p. 99. ISBN 0-697-38506-X.
  Wiggs, Giles F.S. (2011). "Geomorphological hazards in drylands". In Thomas, David S.G.
Arid Zone Geomorphology: Process, Form and Change in Drylands. John Wiley & Sons. p. 588.
ISBN 978-0-470-71076-0. The distribution of all the water on the earth’s surface is not even.
Some places have lots of fresh water (rivers, lakes, lagoons, ponds etc.) and are continuously
replenished by rainfall, runoffs and water from underground. Others places too are known to
have very little water. Therefore, if a region that has lots of rainfall, goes for a couple of weeks
without rains, and people, animals and plants begin to experience a bit of dryness, it can be
called drought. At the same time, that condition may be very normal for places with no water,
and can go for months without any rains with little problems.
  NOAA Drought and climate change: implications for the West Archived 2008-06-25 at the
Wayback Machine. December 2002
  Smith A.B. and R. Katz, 2013: U.S. Billion-dollar weather and climate disasters: Data
sources, trends, accuracy and biases. Natural Hazards, 67, 387–410, doi:10.1007/s11069-013-
0566-5
  "Finfacts: Irish business, finance news on economics". finfacts.com.
  Fuel costs, drought influence price increase Archived September 13, 2012, at Archive.is
  "Nigerian Scholar Links Drought, Climate Change to Conflict in Africa - US Department of
State". state.gov. Archived from the original on 28 October 2005.
  "Is Water the New Oil?". Common Dreams.
  Sunshade' for global warming could cause drought 2 August 2007 New Scientist, Catherine
Brahic
  "Qianfeng Wang". ResearchGate.
  "What is a Drought?" (PDF). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. August
2006. Retrieved 2007-04-10.
  The alleviating trend of drought in the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain of China based on the daily
SPEI. International Journal of Climatology.2015. doi: 10.1002/joc.4244 Wang, Qianfeng, Shi,
Peijun, Lei, Tianjie, Geng, Guangpo, Liu, Jinghui, Mo, Xinyu, Li, Xiaohan, Zhou, Hongkui. and
Wu, Jianjun
  "BBC NEWS - Asia-Pacific - Dam project aims to save Aral Sea". bbc.co.uk.
  "BBC NEWS - Asia-Pacific - Kazakh lake 'could dry up'". bbc.co.uk.
  Prokurat, Sergiusz (2015). "Drought and water shortages in Asia as a threat and economic
problem" (PDF). Journal of Modern Science. 26 (3). Retrieved 4 August 2016.
  Mosley LM (2014). Drought impacts on the water quality of freshwater systems; review and
integration. Earth Science Reviews. DOI: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2014.11.010.
  10. Mosley LM, Zammit B, Leyden E, Heneker TM, Hipsey MR, Skinner D, and Aldridge
KT (2012). The Impact of Extreme Low Flows on the Water Quality of the Lower Murray River
and Lakes (South Australia). Water Resources Management 26: 3923–3946.
  C.Michael Hogan. 2010. Abiotic factor. Ed. Emily Monosson. Encyclopedia of Earth.
National Council for Science and the Environment, Washington DC Archived June 8, 2013, at
the Wayback Machine.
  Drought affecting US hydroelectric production | Daily Estimate Archived October 2, 2011,
at the Wayback Machine.
  "Parched village sues to shut tap at Coke / Drought-hit Indians say plant draining
groundwater". SFGate.
  "Sweden closes nuclear plants over safety fears". Greenpeace International.
  "BBC NEWS - Asia-Pacific - Australians face snake invasion". bbc.co.uk.
  "TFS Article". tamu.edu. Archived from the original on 11 July 2003.
  Mosley LM, Zammit B, Jolley A, and Barnett L (2014). Acidification of lake water due to
drought. Journal of Hydrology. 511: 484–493.
  Mosley LM, Palmer D, Leyden E, Fitzpatrick R, and Shand P (2014). Acidification of
floodplains due to river level decline during drought. Journal of Contaminant Hydrology 161:
10–23.
  Mosley LM, Palmer D, Leyden E, Fitzpatrick R, and Shand P (2014). Changes in acidity
and metal geochemistry in soils, groundwater, drain and river water in the Lower Murray River
after a severe drought. Science of the Total Environment 485–486: 281–291.
  http://news.ucsc.edu/2016/10/microcystin-toxin.html
  BBC - Weather Centre - Features - History and Religion - Weather in the Bible - Drought
and Famine
  "Ancient Chile Migration Mystery Tied to Drought". nationalgeographic.com.
  Drought pushed ancient African immigration [permanent dead link]
  Thomson Reuters Foundation. "Thomson Reuters Foundation". alertnet.org.
  "People & the Planet > climate change > newsfile > big melt threatens millions, says un".
peopleandplanet.net. Archived from the original on 19 August 2007.
  "Ganges, Indus may not survive: climatologists". rediff.com.
  "People's Daily Online - Glaciers melting at alarming speed". peopledaily.com.cn.
  "BBC NEWS - Science/Nature - Himalaya glaciers melt unnoticed". bbc.co.uk.
  "Glaciers Are Melting Faster Than Expected, UN Reports". ScienceDaily.
  Water shortage worst in decades, official says, Los Angeles Times
  Environmental News Service - Amazon Drought Worst in 100 Years
  Drought Threatens Amazon Basin - Extreme conditions felt for second year running
Archived May 27, 2013, at the Wayback Machine.
  Amazon rainforest 'could become a desert' , The Independent, July 23, 2006. Retrieved
September 28, 2006.
  Dying Forest: One year to save the Amazon, The Independent, July 23, 2006. Retrieved
September 28, 2006.
  Climate change a threat to Amazon rainforest, warns WWF, World Wide Fund for Nature,
March 9, 2996. Retrieved September 28, 2006.
  "Plan B Updates - 47: Disappearing Lakes, Shrinking Seas - EPI". earth-policy.org.
  "Shrinking African Lake Offers Lesson on Finite Resources". nationalgeographic.com.
  Sensitivity of the Australian Monsoon to insolation and vegetation: Implications for human
impact on continental moisture balance, Geological Society of America
  Australian rivers 'face disaster', BBC News
  Australia faces worse, more frequent droughts: study, Reuters
  Metropolis strives to meet its thirst, BBC News
  Sara Pantuliano and Sara Pavanello (2004) Taking drought into account Addressing chronic
vulnerability among pastoralists in the Horn of Africa Archived March 7, 2012, at the Wayback
Machine. Overseas Development Institute
  "Fatal Failure: Did Aid Agencies Let Up To 100,000 Somalis Die in 2011?". Time. January
18, 2012.
  Warah, Rasna (2 October 2011). "Manufacturing a famine: How Somalia crisis became a
fund-raising opportunity". The East African. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
  U.N. Says Famine in Somalia Is Over, but Risks Remain
  "Methodists make appeal for famine threatened West Africa - Ekklesia". ekklesia.co.uk.
  "State Conservation District Laws Development and Variations - NRCS". usda.gov.
  Matt Weiser; Jeremy B. White (2014-06-01). "Should California build dams, reservoirs to
help with future droughts?". Fresno Bee. Archived from the original on 2015-03-20. Retrieved
2015-02-18.
  "Cloud seeding helps alleviate drought". chinadaily.com.cn.
  NRC. "Critical Issues in Weather Modification Research".
  City of Santa Barbara (2014-12-22). "Desalinization". Retrieved 2015-02-18.

85.  BBC's From Our Own Correspondent on khat water usage

External links
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Drought.

Look up drought in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikibooks has more on the topic of: Drought

 GIDMaPS Global Integrated Drought Monitoring and Prediction System, University of

California, Irvine
 Water scarcity from FAO Water (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations)
 Drought: Hearing before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, United States
Senate, One Hundred Thirteenth Congress, First Session, on Exploring the Effects of
Drought on Energy And Water Management, April 25, 2013
 U.S. Billion-dollar Weather and Climate Disasters
 Global Real-Time Drought Media Monitoring
 Prokurat S., "Drought and water shortages in Asia as a threat and economic problem", in:
"Journal of Modern Science", 3/26/2015, pp. 235–250.

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Vernalization
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Many species of henbane require vernalization before flowering.

Vernalization (from Latin vernus, "of the spring") is the induction of a plant's flowering process
by exposure to the prolonged cold of winter, or by an artificial equivalent. After vernalization,
plants have acquired the ability to flower, but they may require additional seasonal cues or weeks
of growth before they will actually flower. Vernalization is sometimes used to refer to herbal
(non-woody) plants requiring a cold dormancy to produce new shoots and leaves[1] but this usage
is discouraged.[2]

Many plants grown in temperate climates require vernalization and must experience a period of
low winter temperature to initiate or accelerate the flowering process. This ensures that
reproductive development and seed production occurs in spring and summer, rather than in
autumn.[3] The needed cold is often expressed in chill hours. Typical vernalization temperatures
are between 5 and 10 degrees Celsius (40 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit).[citation needed]

For many perennial plants, such as fruit tree species, a period of cold is needed first to induce
dormancy and then later, after the requisite period of time, re-emerge from that dormancy prior
to flowering. Many monocarpic winter annuals and biennials, including some ecotypes of
Arabidopsis thaliana[4] and winter cereals such as wheat, must go through a prolonged period of
cold before flowering occurs.

Contents
 1 History of vernalization research
 2 In Arabidopsis thaliana
 3 Devernalization
 4 References
 5 External links

History of vernalization research

In the history of agriculture, farmers observed a traditional distinction between "winter cereals",
whose seeds require chilling (to trigger their subsequent emergence and growth), and "spring
cereals", whose seeds can be sown in spring, and germinate, and then flower soon thereafter.
Scientists in the early 19th century had discussed how some plants needed cold temperatures to
flower. In 1857 an American agriculturist John Hancock Klippart, Secretary of the Ohio Board
of Agriculture, reported the importance and effect of winter temperature on the germination of
wheat. One of the most significant works was by a German plant physiologist Gustav Gassner
who made a detailed discussion in his 1918 paper. Gassner was the first to systematically
differentiate the specific requirements of winter plants from those of summer plants, and also
that early swollen germinating seeds of winter cereals are sensitive to cold.[5] In 1928 a Russian
geneticist Trofim Lysenko published his works on the effects of cold on cereal seeds, and coind
the term "яровизация" ("jarovization") to describe a chilling process he used to make the seeds
of winter cereals behave like spring cereals (Jarovoe in Russian, originally from – from jar
meaning fire or the god of spring). Lysenko himself translated the term into "vernalization"
(from the Latin vernum meaning Spring). After Lysenko the term was used to explain the ability
of flowering in some plants after a period of chilling due to physiological changes and external
factors. The formal definition was given in 1960 by a French botanist P. Chouard, as "the
acquisition or acceleration of the ability to flower by a chilling treatment".[6]

Lysenko's 1928 paper on vernalization and plant physiology drew wide attention due to its
practical consequences for Russian agriculture. Severe cold and lack of winter snow had
destroyed many early winter wheat seedlings. By treating wheat seeds with moisture as well as
cold, Lysenko induced them to bear a crop when planted in spring.[7] Later however, Lysenko
inaccurately asserted that the vernalized state could be inherited, i.e. the offspring of a vernalized
plant would behave as if they themselves had also been vernalized and would not require
vernalization in order to flower quickly.[8]

Early research on vernalization focused on plant physiology; the increasing availability of

molecular biology has made it possible to unravel its underlying mechanisms.[8] For example, a
lengthening daylight period (longer days), as well as cold temperatures are required for winter
wheat plants to go from the vegetative to the reproductive state; the three interacting genes are
called VRN1, VRN2, and FT (VRN3).[9]

Due to plant flowering requiring the successful co-operation of several metabolic pathways,
computer models that incorporate vernalization have also been made.[10]

In Arabidopsis thaliana

Arabidopsis thaliana rosette before vernalization, with no floral spike

Arabidopsis thaliana ("thale cress") is a much-studied model for vernalization. Some ecotypes
(varieties), called "winter annuals", have delayed flowering without vernalization; others
("summer annuals") do not.[11] The genes that underlie this difference in plant physiology have
been intensively studied.[8]

The reproductive phase change of A. thaliana occurs by a sequence of two related events: first,
the bolting transition (flower stalk elongates), then the floral transition (first flower appears).[12]
Bolting is a robust predictor of flower formation, and hence a good indicator for vernalization
research.[12]

In winter annual Arabidopsis, vernalization of the meristem appears to confer competence to

respond to floral inductive signals. A vernalized meristem retains competence for as long as 300
days in the absence of an inductive signal.[11]

At the molecular level, flowering is repressed by the protein Flowering Locus C (FLC), which
binds to and represses genes that promote flowering, thus blocking flowering.[3][13] Winter annual
ecotypes of Arabidopsis have an active copy of the gene FRIGIDA (FRI), which promotes FLC
expression, thus repression of flowering.[14] Prolonged exposure to cold (vernalization) induces
expression of VERNALIZATION INSENSTIVE3, which interacts with the VERNALIZATION2
polycomb-like complex to reduce FLC expression through chromatin remodeling.[15] The
epigenetic silencing of FLC by chromatin remodeling is also thought to involve the cold-induced
expression of antisense FLC COOLAIR[16][17] or COLDAIR transcripts.[18] Vernalization is
registered by the plant by the stable silencing of individual FLC loci.[19] The removal of silent
chromatin marks at FLC during embryogenesis prevents the inheritance of the vernalized state
[20]

Since vernalization also occurs in flc mutants (lacking FLC), vernalization must also activate a
non-FLC pathway.[21] A day-length mechanism is also important.[9]

Devernalization
It is possible to devernalize a plant by exposure to sometimes low and high temperatures
subsequent to vernalization. For example, commercial onion growers store sets at low
temperatures, but devernalize them before planting, because they want the plant's energy to go
into enlarging its bulb (underground stem), not making flowers.[22]

References
1.

 Sokolski, K.; Dovholuk, A.; Dovholuk, L.; Faletra, P. (1997). "Axenic seed culture and
micropropagation of Cypripedium reginae". Selbyana. 18 (2): 172–82. JSTOR 41760430.
  Chouard, P. (June 1960). "Vernalization and its relations to dormancy". Annual Review of
Plant Physiology. Annual Reviews. 11: 191–238. doi:10.1146/annurev.pp.11.060160.001203.
  Sung, Sibum; He, Yuehui; Eshoo, Tifani W; Tamada, Yosuke; Johnson, Lianna;
Nakahigashi, Kenji; Goto, Koji; Jacobsen, Steve E; Amasino, Richard M (2006). "Epigenetic
maintenance of the vernalized state in Arabidopsis thaliana requires LIKE
HETEROCHROMATIN PROTEIN 1". Nature Genetics. 38 (6): 706–10. PMID 16682972.
doi:10.1038/ng1795.
  Michaels, Scott D.; He, Yuehui; Scortecci, Katia C.; Amasino, Richard M. (2003).
"Attenuation of FLOWERING LOCUS C activity as a mechanism for the evolution of summer-
annual flowering behavior in Arabidopsis". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
100 (17): 10102–7. Bibcode:2003PNAS..10010102M. JSTOR 3147669. PMC 187779  .
PMID 12904584. doi:10.1073/pnas.1531467100.
  Chouard, P (1960). "Vernalization and its relations to dormancy". Annual Review of Plant
Physiology. 11 (1): 191–238. doi:10.1146/annurev.pp.11.060160.001203.
  Poltronieri, Palmiro; Hong, Yiguo (2015). Applied Plant Genomics and Biotechnology.
Cambridge (UK): Woodhead Publishing. p. 121. ISBN 978-0-08-100068-7.
  Roll-Hansen, Nils (1985). "A new perspective on Lysenko?". Annals of Science. Taylor &
Francis. 42 (3): 261–278. PMID 11620694. doi:10.1080/00033798500200201.
  Amasino, R. (2004). "Vernalization, competence, and the epigenetic memory of winter". The
Plant Cell. 16 (10): 2553–2559. PMC 520954  . PMID 15466409. doi:10.1105/tpc.104.161070.
  Trevaskis, Ben; Hemming, Megan N.; Dennis, Elizabeth S. (August 2007). "The molecular
basis of vernalization-induced flowering in cereals". Trends in Plant Science. Elsevier. 12 (8):
352–357. PMID 17629542. doi:10.1016/j.tplants.2007.06.010.
  "New Genetic Model Predicts Plant Flowering in Different Environments" (Press release).
Brown University. January 15, 2009. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
  "Vernalisation response". Plant Biology. Retrieved 2011-01-26.[self-published source?]
  Pouteau, Sylvie; Albertini, Catherine (2009). "The significance of bolting and floral
transitions as indicators of reproductive phase change in Arabidopsis". Journal of Experimental
Botany. 60 (12): 3367–77. PMID 19502535. doi:10.1093/jxb/erp173.
  Amasino, Richard (2010). "Seasonal and developmental timing of flowering". The Plant
Journal. 61 (6): 1001–13. PMID 20409274. doi:10.1111/j.1365-313X.2010.04148.x.
  Choi, Kyuha; Kim, Juhyun; Hwang, Hyun-Ju; Kim, Sanghee; Park, Chulmin; Kim, Sang
Yeol; Lee, Ilha (2011). "The FRIGIDA Complex Activates Transcription ofFLC, a Strong
Flowering Repressor inArabidopsis, by Recruiting Chromatin Modification Factors". The Plant
Cell. 23 (1): 289–303. PMC 3051252  . PMID 21282526. doi:10.1105/tpc.110.075911.
  Sung, Sibum; Amasino, Richard M. (2004). "Vernalization in Arabidopsis thaliana is
mediated by the PHD finger protein VIN3". Nature. 427 (6970): 159–163.
Bibcode:2004Natur.427..159S. doi:10.1038/nature02195.
  http://www.jic.ac.uk/news/2014/10/plants-require-coolair-flower-spring[full citation needed]
  Csorba, Tibor; Questa, Julia I.; Sun, Qianwen; Dean, Caroline (2014). "Antisense
COOLAIR mediates the coordinated switching of chromatin states atFLCduring vernalization".
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 111 (45): 16160–5.
Bibcode:2014PNAS..11116160C. PMC 4234544  . PMID 25349421.
doi:10.1073/pnas.1419030111.
  Heo, J. B.; Sung, S. (2011). "Vernalization-Mediated Epigenetic Silencing by a Long
Intronic Noncoding RNA". Science. 331 (6013): 76–9. PMID 21127216.
doi:10.1126/science.1197349.
  Angel, Andrew; Song, Jie; Dean, Caroline; Howard, Martin (2011). "A Polycomb-based
switch underlying quantitative epigenetic memory". Nature. 476 (7358): 105–8.
PMID 21785438. doi:10.1038/nature10241.
  Crevillén, Pedro; Yang, Hongchun; Cui, Xia; Greeff, Christiaan; Trick, Martin; Qiu, Qi;
Cao, Xiaofeng; Dean, Caroline (2014). "Epigenetic reprogramming that prevents
transgenerational inheritance of the vernalized state". Nature. 515 (7528): 587–90.
PMC 4247276  . PMID 25219852. doi:10.1038/nature13722.
  "Vernalisation pathway". Plant Biology. Retrieved 2011-01-26.[self-published source?]

22.  "Vernalization". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 2011-01-24.

vernalization, the artificial exposure of plants (or seeds) to low temperatures in order to
stimulate flowering or to enhance seed production. By satisfying the cold requirement of
many temperate-zone plants, flowering can be induced to occur earlier than normal or in
warm climates lacking the requisite seasonal chilling.

External links
 https://www.jic.ac.uk/staff/caroline-dean/vernalization.htm
 Article in New Scientist

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Saline solution
Home » Saline solution

Definition

noun, plural: saline solutions

A salty solution prepared by dissolving sodium chloride (table salt, NaCl) by water

adjective: saline

Of, pertaining to, or relating to a saline solution; salty

Supplement

A solution is a homogenous mixture in which the particles of one or more substances are
distributed uniformly throughout another substance. It is comprised basically of a dissolving
agent called solvent and the dissolving material called the solute. In a saline solution, the solute
is the sodium chloride and the solvent is water. Saline solution has several uses in chemical,
industrial, and medical uses. In medicine, the saline solution, or simply saline, is used in a
variety of ways such as flushing wounds and skin abrasions, nasal irrigation, intravenous
administration, maintaining contact lenses, and eye drops.

A saline solution may be prepared depending on the concentration of the salt (i.e. low, normal, or
high concentration). Normal saline solutions (i.e. especially the sterile with normal salt
concentration) are the ones most commonly used in medicine. It is prepared by dissolving 9.0 g
of salt per liter (i.e. 0.90%).

Word origin: Latin sal (“salt”)

Heating plants for hot water and process

steam production

With Valmet’s pro ven and reliable technology, you can produce
heat or steam in a sustainable way. We offer heating plant solutions in the thermal capacity range
from 10 to 150 MWth – all designed to meet customer needs and match the type of fuel
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The heating plants are engineered and built to meet even the most stringent environmental
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 Hot water boilers for industrial needs
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Transpiration - Water
Movement through Plants
Lesson Outline
Rate Me (1063 ratings)
 Transpiration -
Overview and

Objectives
 1
 Transpiration -
 2
Introduction
 3
 Transpiration - What
 4
and Why?
 5
 Transpiration - What
Controls Rates of
Transpiration? Transpiration - Factors Affecting Rates of
 Transpiration - Major
Plant Highlights
Transpiration
 Transpiration - Factors
Affecting Rates of PLANT PARAMETERS – These plant parameters help plants
Transpiration control rates of transpiration by serving as forms of resistance to
 Transpiration - water movement out of the plant.
Summary
 Transpiration - Stomata – Stomata are
References pores in the leaf that
allow gas exchange
Lesson Media Objects where water vapor leaves the plant and carbon dioxide
enters. Special cells called guard cells control each pore’s
 Transpiration opening or closing. When stomata are open, transpiration rates
increase; when they are closed, transpiration rates decrease.

Boundary layer – The boundary layer is a thin layer of still air

hugging the surface of the leaf. This layer of air is not moving. For
transpiration to occur, water vapor leaving the stomata must diffuse
through this motionless layer to reach the atmosphere where the
water vapor will be removed by moving air. The larger the
boundary layer, the slower the rates of transpiration.
Plants can alter the size of their boundary layers around leaves
through a variety of structural features. Leaves that possess many
hairs or pubescence will have larger boundary layers; the hairs
serve as mini-wind breaks by increasing the layer of still air around
the leaf surface and slowing transpiration rates. Some plants possess
stomata that are sunken into the leaf surface, dramatically
increasing the boundary layer and slowing transpiration. Boundary
layers increase as leaf size increases, reducing rates of transpiration
as well. For example, plants from desert climates often have small
leaves so that their small boundary layers will help cool the leaf
with higher rates of transpiration.

Cuticle – The cuticle is the waxy layer present on all above-ground

tissue of a plant and serves as a barrier to water movement out of a
leaf. Because the cuticle is made of wax, it is very hydrophobic or
‘water-repelling’; therefore, water does not move through it very
easily. The thicker the cuticle layer on a leaf surface, the slower the
transpiration rate. Cuticle thickness varies widely among plant
species. In general, plants from hot, dry climates have thicker
cuticles than plants from cool, moist climates. In addition, leaves
that develop under direct sunlight will have much thicker cuticles
than leaves that develop under shade conditions.

ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS – Some environmental

conditions create the driving force for movement of water out of the
plant. Others alter the plant’s ability to control water loss.

Relative humidity –
Relative humidity
(RH) is the amount of
water vapor in the air
compared to the
amount of water vapor that air could hold at a given
temperature. A hydrated leaf would have a RH near 100%,
just as the atmosphere on a rainy day would have. Any
reduction in water in the atmosphere creates a gradient for
water to move from the leaf to the atmosphere. The lower the
RH, the less moist the atmosphere and thus, the greater the driving
force for transpiration. When RH is high, the atmosphere contains
more moisture, reducing the driving force for transpiration.

Temperature – Temperature greatly influences the magnitude of the

driving force for water movement out of a plant rather than having a
direct effect on stomata. As temperature increases, the water
holding capacity of that air increases sharply. The amount of water
 does not change, just the ability of that air to hold water. Because
warmer air can hold more water, its relative humidity is less than
the same air sample at a lower temperature, or it is ‘drier air’.
Because cooler air holds less water, its relative humidity increases
or it is ‘moister air’. Therefore, warmer air will increase the driving
force for transpiration and cooler air will decrease the driving force
for transpiration.

Soil water – The source of water for transpiration out of the plant
comes from the soil. Plants with adequate soil moisture will
normally transpire at high rates because the soil provides the water
to move through the plant. Plants cannot continue to transpire
without wilting if the soil is very dry because the water in the xylem
that moves out through the leaves is not being replaced by the soil
water. This condition causes the leaf to lose turgor or firmness, and
the stomata to close. If this loss of turgor continues throughout the
plant, the plant will wilt.

Light – Stomata are triggered to open in the light so that carbon

dioxide is available for the light-dependent process of
photosynthesis. Stomata are closed in the dark in most plants. Very
low levels of light at dawn can cause stomata to open so they can
access carbon dioxide for photosynthesis as soon as the sun hits
their leaves. Stomata are most sensitive to blue light, the light
predominating at sunrise.

Wind – Wind can alter rates of transpiration by removing the

boundary layer, that still layer of water vapor hugging the surface of
leaves. Wind increases the movement of water from the leaf surface
when it reduces the boundary layer, because the path for water to
reach the atmosphere is shorter.

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This project was supported in part by the National Research Initiative Competitive Grants CAP
project 2011-68002-30029 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture,
adminstered by the University of California-Davis and by the National Science Foundation
(NSF), Division of Undergraduate Education, National SMETE Digital Library Program, Award
#0938034, administered by the University of Nebraska. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or
recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily
reflect the views of the USDA or NSF.

Copyright Plant and Soil Sciences eLibrary 2017. All Rights Reserved.

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Feeding the World

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Perhaps the biggest challenge facing the world today is how to feed seven billion people and
ensure that no child ever goes to bed hungry.
Agricultural biotechnology holds great hope for meeting this challenge by increasing crop yields,
preserving and improving soils, enhancing the control of pests, weeds and harmful diseases and
producing more healthful food with enhanced vitamin and nutrient levels.

How do we feed the world in an environmentally sustainable way and make the foods we
consume safer and healthier? Here's how:

Increase Crop Yields

Agricultural biotechnology produces dramatic increases in cotton, soybeans and corn - all staple
crops that feed and clothe millions. The current global average is one-third of a ton of grain to
sustain one person for one year. Therefore, an additional 16 million tons of corn produced
through biotechnology could potentially feed 48 million people. The ability to improve crops by
introducing multiple traits will likely produce even higher crop yields in the future.

Strengthen Crops
Diseases and pests currently reduce global food production by more than 35 percent, at a cost of
more than $200 billion a year. Corn and cotton seeds enhanced with Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), a
bacteria used widely in conventional and organic agriculture, have a built-in defense against the
most threatening insects, reducing the need for pesticides. These new corn and cotton varieties
save farmers time and money, while also lessening the impact of agriculture on the environment.
Through biotechnology common crops like cotton, corn, soybeans and canola can be grown
using conservation tillage, resulting in less plowing and healthier soils.

Improving Animals for Public Health and Sustainability

Advances in the area of genetically engineered animals provide tools to improve human health
via production of novel proteins, vaccines, drugs and tissues for prevention of disease. In order to
feed a growing population, genetically engineered livestock can be produced that use feed more
efficiently and produce less manure.

Today, more than 13.3 million farmers around the world use agricultural biotech processes.
Since their introduction in the 1990s, biotech crops have been grown on more than 2.3 billion
acres of farmland worldwide. Countries on all six settled continents have authorized biotech
crops for their farmers. Almost 93 percent of the farmers growing biotech crops are from "small
and resource-poor farmers from developing countries such as China, India, Philippines and South
Africa."

More information on biotechnology in agriculture

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