This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of higher conductivity of nutrient solution created by nitrate or chloride salts of potassium and calcium on growth characteristics of pepper plants (Capsicum annuum var annuum) during four months of growth period. Two EC5 and EC8 dS/m of Hoagland nutrient solutions were prepared using various salt combinations, namely: KCl + CaCl2, KNO3 + CaNO3, and KNO3 + CaNO3 + NaCl. Hoagland nutrient solution with EC 1.8 dS/m served as a control. Higher conductivity treatments had different effects on pepper plant growth. The most significant reduction in growth parameters of plant height, shoot fresh weight, fruit yield and nutrients uptake was in plants treated with KCl + CaCl2 particularly at EC8. Application of KNO3 + CaNO3 particularly at EC5, showed no difference as compared to the control regarding many growth parameters. Application of KNO3 + CaNO3 at EC5 resulted in higher shoot fresh weight compared to the control. All salinity treatments, except from KNO3 + CaNO3 at EC5, reduced the fruit yield compared to the control. Treatments of KCl + CaCl2 and KNO3 + CaNO3 + NaCl particularly at EC8 of nutrient solution, resulted in higher leaf proline concentration, catalase and peroxidase enzymes activity compared to the control. Other conductivity treatments showed no difference in catalase or peroxidase enzymes activities. Significantly the lowest amount of leaf N, K, Mg and Ca was in KCl + CaCl2 at EC8. On the other hand, the highest leaf macronutrient concentrations were in KNO3 + CaNO3 at EC5 and/or EC8 that showed only higher leaf N and Ca values compared to the control. Leaf micronutrient concentrations were the highest in KNO3 + CaNO3 at EC5 that generally showed no difference with control plants. However, application of KCl + CaCl2 particularly at EC8 and to less extent KNO3 + CaNO3 + NaCl at EC8, reduced the leaf micronutrient concentrations. Application of KNO3 + CaNO3 at EC5 increased and KCl + CaCl2 or KNO3 + CaNO3 + NaCl at EC8 decreased the leaf Fe concentration compared to control plants.
The fat dormouse (Glis glis L.) is a small arboreal and extreme habitat specialist mammal that is tightly linked to the deciduous mixed forests dominated by Beech (Fagus orientalis) and oaks (Quercus sp.). Despite its status in Iran as a least concern species, dormice face high risk of extinction in some parts of Europe. The unique life history and large scale distribution of the species in the Palearctic region made it as an ideal model species. This habitat specialist rodent is particularly sensitive to size and connectivity of the forest patches. The fat dormouse shows very deep molecular and morphological divergence in its eastern most parts of its global distribution, in the Hyrcanian refugium of the Northern Iran. Therefore modeling its distributional range can leads to identify biodiversity hotspots and planning conservation activities. The meteorological data, land cover types, topographical variables and geo-referenced points representing geographical locations of the fat dormouse populations (latitude/longitude) in the study area were used as the primary MaxEnt model input data. The predictive accuracy of the Fat Dormouse ecological niche model was significant (training accuracy of 93.3%). This approach successfully identified the areas of the fat dormouse presence across the study area. The result suggests that the maximum entropy modeling approach can be implemented in the next step towards the development of new tools for monitoring the habitat fragmentation and identifying biodiversity hotspots.
This study was done using three nitrogenous compounds to evaluate their effects on postharvest characteristics of chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum indicum) cut flowers. The study consisted of three separate and parallel experiments, in which ammonium sulfate, calcium nitrate and potassium nitrate were used in different concentrations of zero, 50, 100, 200 and 500 mg dm ‒3 N for pretreatment of stems for 6 hour before transferring to holding d-water solution. The results showed that petal ion leakage and leaf SPAD values were increased by increasing ammonium sulfate, but not calcium or potassium nitrate. Petal carotenoids were increased by pretreatment of ammonium sulfate and potassium nitrate. There was constant increase in water uptake by increasing the levels of calcium nitrate and potassium nitrate, while ammonium sulfate at high concentrations (200 and 500 mg dm ‒3 N) resulted in significant less water uptake compared to control. Ammonium sulfate in 50 and 100 mg dm ‒3 increased shelf life of pretreated stems, but higher concentrations significantly reduced cut flowers shelf life. Increasing concentrations of calcium nitrate and particularly potassium nitrate have led to prolongation of flower shelf life to 12 days compared to 6 days of control. The results indicate that pretreatment of chrysanthemum cut flowers with ammonium sulfate in rather low concentrations or with moderate to high concentrations of calcium nitrate or potassium nitrate can significantly improve shelf life and postharvest flower qualities.