H. Shimizu, T. Hoshi, Kenji Nakamura, Jai-Eok Park
{"title":"Development of a Non-contact Ultrasonic Pollination Device","authors":"H. Shimizu, T. Hoshi, Kenji Nakamura, Jai-Eok Park","doi":"10.2525/ECB.53.85","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.53.85","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"37 1","pages":"85-88"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90220736","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ryosuke Nomiyama, D. Yasutake, Y. Sago, M. Mori, K. Tagawa, H. Cho, Yueru Wu, Weizhen Wang, M. Kitano
{"title":"Evapotranspiration Integrated Model for Analysis of Soil Salinization Affected by Root Selective Absorption","authors":"Ryosuke Nomiyama, D. Yasutake, Y. Sago, M. Mori, K. Tagawa, H. Cho, Yueru Wu, Weizhen Wang, M. Kitano","doi":"10.2525/ECB.53.199","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.53.199","url":null,"abstract":"Soil salinization occurs in crop fields of arid and semiarid regions under desertification (Dregne, 2002). Soil salinity reduces the crop’s ion absorbing power, which quickly reduces growth rate (Munns, 2002), and presents a serious problem for sustainable agriculture (Food and Agriculture Organization, 2002). Generally, salts are introduced through poor irrigation water and accumulated in the root zone soil (Oster, 1994; Rengasamy, 2006). This salt accumulation results from the following processes: 1) the transport of water and ions from groundwater to the root zone soil is mainly driven by crop transpiration (i.e., root water absorption), 2) these ions are selectively absorbed by crop roots, and 3) ions mainly responsible for soil salinization (such as Na and Cl ) accumulate in the root zone soil (Kitano et al., 2006; Yasutake et al., 2006; 2007; 2009a; Araki et al., 2011). Therefore, it is important to understand active and selective ion absorption by crop roots in the soil salinization process. Active and selective ion absorption by crop roots is regulated through ion-specific transport proteins on root cell membranes (Taiz and Zeiger, 2006). Focusing on this function of membrane transport proteins, Epstain and Hagen (1952) expressed the characteristics of ion absorption with the Michaelis-Menten equation, which was proposed based on the dependence of ion absorption on ion concentration in the root zone. Sago et al. (2011a; 2011b) investigated the effect of environmental factors on root ion absorption and observed that ion absorption depended on not only ion concentration in the root zone but also on ion mass flow to the root surface, which was defined as ion concentration in the root zone multiplied by water flow driven by crop transpiration (Barber, 1962). Therefore, Sago et al. (2011c) modified the Michaelis-Menten equation and newly proposed the transpiration-integrated model, which represents ion absorption affected by ion mass flow. Nomiyama et al. (2012b) applied the transpirationintegrated model to the data of Yasutake et al. (2009b), to analyze ion absorption by maize and sunflower plants in soil-less culture under salinized conditions. The results indicated that the dynamics of salt accumulation in the simplified condition of root zone in soil-less culture can be explained reliably by the transpiration-integrated model. On the other hand, in soil-based culture, both soil evaporation and transpiration induce a complicated process of water transport accompanied by ion transport in the root zone soil. To investigate this complicated process, Kitano et al. (2009) developed a large-sized soil column system for analyzing the dynamics of water and ion transport in soilplant systems. Ebihara et al. (2010) examined salt accumu-","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"70 1","pages":"199-204"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75352609","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Potential of Rattail Fescue Powder for Weed Management","authors":"Madoka Yamamoto, H. Kato‐Noguchi","doi":"10.2525/ECB.53.43","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.53.43","url":null,"abstract":"Controlling weeds through allelopathy is one strategy to reduce dependency on synthetic herbicides. We investigated possible allelopathic effects of rattail fescue ( Vulpia myuros (L.) C.C. Gmel.). Water extract of rattail fescue inhibited root and shoot growth of cress ( Lepidium sativum L.). Powder of rattail fescue also inhibited the root and shoot growth of cress in a concentration dependent manner. The effectiveness of the water extract and powder of rattail fescue on the cress root and shoot growth was not significantly different. Allelopathic active substances may be leached from the powder into bioassay medium and those substances may inhibit the cress roots and shoots. In addition, the powder inhibited root and shoot growth of lettuce ( Lactuca sativa L.), alfalfa ( Medicago sativa L.), Phleum pratense L., Digitaria sanguinalis L., Lolium multiflorum Lam. Lolium rigidum Gaund., Echinochloa crus-galli (L.) Beauv. and Echinochloa colonum L. in a concentration dependent manner. Therefore, rattail fescue could be useful for a weed suppressive residue or soil additive materials in the variety of agricultural settings to reduce dependency on synthetic herbicides, which should be investigated further in the field.","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"84 ","pages":"43-46"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2525/ECB.53.43","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72543404","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ayana Ito, H. Shimizu, Ryosuke Hiroki, H. Nakashima, J. Miyasaka, K. Ohdoi
{"title":"Quantitative Relationship of the Nutritional Quality of Spinach with Temperature and Duration in Root Area Chilling Treatment","authors":"Ayana Ito, H. Shimizu, Ryosuke Hiroki, H. Nakashima, J. Miyasaka, K. Ohdoi","doi":"10.2525/ECB.53.35","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.53.35","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"85 1","pages":"35-42"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90012452","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Automation in Plant Factory with Labor-saving Conveyance System","authors":"Minoru Tokimasa, Y. Nishiura","doi":"10.2525/ECB.53.101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.53.101","url":null,"abstract":"Plant factory basics and facts were reported by Takatsuji (1996). The majority of current cultivation methods in plant factories are floating system where the cultivation panels float on water in a container. The panels are removed from the harvesting side by hand, while the new panels are pushed on by hand from the planting side. At the moment, the work is basically done by workers inside the cultivation room. Therefore, it is necessary to solve hygiene issues such as bacteria prevention, and safety considerations for work on the upper shelves. Also, it is important to solve the problem as to how to reduce labor running costs (Now, 5 workers / 1,000 plants, 5,000 yen / day). Low cost artificial type plant factories with total system control were discussed by Takayanagi (2000). As one way to solve these problem areas such as hygiene, employee safety, and labor cost management, the automatic culture bed transportation system was fabricated and examined. The automation of plant factory operations was discussed by Ogura (2011). The automated cultivation transport system reported in this paper utilizes the transportation technology as a labor saving structure, intended to innovative and revolutionary closed plant factory systems. To achieve labor saving employee reduction and safety for nutrient film technique (NFT) multistage cultivation, the system requires automated culture bed loading from the planting side, automated unloading from the harvesting side, and automated transportation for moving forward to erase the unused spaces. When the system is in use, the only employees work is to set the culture beds on the warehouse entrance plate for planting. Thus, this system was designed to keep employees safe from working in high-places and to reduce the labor cost of transportation from the planting entrance to the harvest room. Also, hygiene management can be improved and maintained because employee entrance into the cultivation room is limited. The adopted conveyor equipment in this system has the latest network and control system that can communicate the cultivation shelves operation conditions in real time. Operation instructions and status confirmations such as continuous automated delivery, and trouble detection can be remotely controlled from a centralized location, because the position of the cultivation shelves can be managed. These methods combined are considered to offer labor savings benefits. From the above items, significant running cost reductions can be achieved, and operating a mass production plant factory becomes feasible.","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"4 1","pages":"101-105"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73194919","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
M. H. Rahman, S. Sabreen, M. Hara, M. Deurer, K. R. Islam
{"title":"Forage Legume Response to Subsoil Compaction","authors":"M. H. Rahman, S. Sabreen, M. Hara, M. Deurer, K. R. Islam","doi":"10.2525/ECB.53.107","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.53.107","url":null,"abstract":"Compaction strongly influences soil physical properties such as bulk density, pore size and continuity, aeration, permeability, penetration resistance and soil water and temperature regime (Panayiotopoulos et al., 1994). Adverse effects of compaction on plant root growth and concomitant poor plant growth and yields have been well recognized (Barraclough and Weir, 1988), especially in fine textured soils (Gomez et al., 2002). Soil layers compacted due to machine traffic which is highly resistant to penetrate plant roots are one of the most common problems in agriculture. (Camargo and Alleoni, 1997). In addition to preventing root growth in the soil, high bulk density interferes with the movement and distribution of water in the profile, increasing the risk of erosion and low availability of water and nutrients to the plant. Uptake of nutrients by crops is of great importance to the farmer as well as to society as a whole since it has a major impact on the economic outcome of crop production. Furthermore, nutrient uptake has implication for environmental health by way of nutrient leaching and run-off into water bodies. Compaction affects nutrient availability and uptake through a number of mechanisms. Aeration negatively affects the availability of nitrogen, manganese and sulphur which are involved in redox reactions, and the growth and function of roots (Lipiec and Stepniewski, 1995). Transport of nutrients in the soil is decreased as compaction normally increases mass flow transport (Kemper et al., 1971) and the diffusion coefficient at a given gravimetric water content. Compaction increases root-to-soil contact, which may facilitate nutrient uptake (Veen et al., 1992), but generally reduces root growth through its effect on aeration and mechanical resistance. Considering that the mechanical methods used to eliminate compacted soil layers are expensive and energy consuming, an attractive alternative could be to use plants with vigorous roots to modify the compacted subsoil (Dexter, 1991). The use of plants with vigorous roots as a strategy in compacted soil management provides more uniform rupture of compacted layers than the common mechanical methods (Camargo and Alleoni, 1997). Compaction of the soil below the depth of tillage is referred to as subsoil compaction (Jorajuria et al., 1997).","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"5 1","pages":"107-115"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83313697","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yusuke Watanabe, Yukie Ochi, H. Sugimoto, H. Kato‐Noguchi
{"title":"Weed Inhibitory Activity of Nomura's Jellyfish","authors":"Yusuke Watanabe, Yukie Ochi, H. Sugimoto, H. Kato‐Noguchi","doi":"10.2525/ECB.53.165","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.53.165","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"12 1","pages":"165-167"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76131374","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Fruit Ripening Process in Red Kiwifruit Cultivar ‘Rainbow Red’ (Actinidia chinensis) on Vines","authors":"S. Murakami, Y. Ikoma, M. Yano","doi":"10.2525/ECB.53.159","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.53.159","url":null,"abstract":"We present a detailed study of differences in the fruit ripening stage on the vines and ethylene treatment in the red kiwifruit cultivar ‘Rainbow Red’ ( Actinidia chinensis ). We evaluated the fruit quality (core and flesh firmness, soluble solid content (SSC), and titratable acid (TA)); ethylene metabolism; and gene expression of ACS1 , ACO3 , EIL4 , ERF14 , and PGB at each stage. Fruits on the vines somewhat softened gradually. SSC increased, and core and flesh firmness as well as TA decreased gradually. However, rapid ethylene production was not observed, and gene expression of ACS1 , ACO3 , EIL4 , ERF14 , and PGB was at the basal level at each stage. While the fruit quality following ethylene conditioning, core and flesh firmness, and TA rapidly decreased, SSC and ethylene production rapidly increased. It was confirmed that gene expression of ACS1 , ACO3 , EIL4 , ERF14 , and PGB rapidly increased. These results suggested that the ripening of ‘Rainbow Red’ on the vines is not associated with ethylene.","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"146 1","pages":"159-163"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90995297","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
B. Falquet, A. Gfeller, Mickaël Pourcelot, F. Tschuy, J. Wirth
{"title":"Weed Suppression by Common Buckwheat: A Review","authors":"B. Falquet, A. Gfeller, Mickaël Pourcelot, F. Tschuy, J. Wirth","doi":"10.2525/ECB.53.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.53.1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"2004 1","pages":"1-6"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86238070","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Growth Measurement of a Community of Strawberries Using Three-Dimensional Sensor","authors":"Satoshi Yamamoto, S. Hayashi, S. Tsubota","doi":"10.2525/ECB.53.49","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.53.49","url":null,"abstract":"Monitoring plant health is an important technique to guarantee high quality and quantity of agricultural production. In case of greenhouse-grown strawberry plants, farmers generally measure the plants’ height, number of leaves, and area of a single leaf to obtain growth information and estimate the plant’s health. These indices have been used successfully for many years in traditional strawberrygrowing. However, this method of monitoring plant health in an industrial-scale greenhouse would take up a lot of time. Furthermore, traditional growth information is not usually obtained every day. Even when the information is obtained, it involves taking only a sample value, which does not accurately report the condition of every plant. A circulating-type movable bench system for strawberry cultivation has been studied in Japan (Yoshida et al., 2008; Hayashi et al., 2011; Saito et al., 2012). With this cultivation system, all plants pass daily through a single location, called the access point, to be watered. The access point is thus the ideal place for continually and precisely obtaining information on the growth of strawberry plants. Machine vision is a promising technique for effectively monitoring every plant at the access point, since it enables non-destructive measurement. For effective plant health monitoring, many imaging techniques such as digital color imaging, multi-spectral imaging, thermal imaging and fluorescence imaging have been investigated (Takayama and Nishina, 2009). On the other hand, the availability of low-cost depth sensors that generate depth images is on the rise because of the development of natural user interfaces (NUIs), as seen in Microsoft’s Kinect sensor, which is commonly used as a motion controller for TV games. The accuracy of the Kinect sensor has been reported as a percentage of measurement error: between 2 cm to 2 cm is 90.9%, 82.9% and 81.2% for data along the x, y and z axes of the camera coordinates, respectively, using an uncalibrated Kinect sensor (Khoshelham and Elberink, 2012). In the camera coordinates, x and y axes are included in the CMOS plane of the camera. Namely, x axis is horizontal direction in the plane, and y axis is vertical direction. Direction of z axis is equivalent to the normal vector of the plane. For the leaf segmentation in rosebushes and the measurement of the leaf angle of ornamental plants, the low-cost depth sensor has been applied (Chéné et al., 2012). The Kinect sensor of these researches was equipped with an active-stereo system to obtain depth information. In 2014, new Kinect sensor was released which measures the depth by way of timeof-flight method. It is easily predicted that more researches will be conducted using the new sensor in the foreseeable future. We have developed a plant growth measurement method for strawberries using the active-stereo type Kinect sensor and have investigated the measurement accuracies of plant height and width and the area of leaves using a potted st","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"1 1","pages":"49-53"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90293465","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}