Research synthesis methods such as meta-analysis rely primarily on appropriate summary statistics (i.e., means and variance) of a response of interest for implementation to draw general conclusions from a body of research.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Global Plant Health Assessment (GPHA) is a collective, volunteer-based effort to assemble expert opinions on plant health and disease impacts on ecosystem services based on published scientific evidence. The GPHA considers a range of forest, agricultural, and urban systems worldwide. These are referred to as (Ecoregion × Plant System), i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnderstanding the genetic diversity and mechanisms underlying genetic variation in pathogen populations is crucial to the development of effective control strategies. We investigated the genetic diversity and reproductive biology of Colletotrichum graminicola isolates which infect maize by sequencing the genomes of 108 isolates collected from 14 countries using restriction site-associated DNA sequencing (RAD-seq) and whole-genome sequencing (WGS). Clustering analyses based on single-nucleotide polymorphisms revealed three genetic groups delimited by continental origin, compatible with short-dispersal of the pathogen and geographic subdivision.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe occurrence of high- (H) and low- (L) yielding field sites within a farm is a commonly observed phenomenon in soybean cultivation. Site topography, soil physical and chemical attributes, and soil/root-associated microbial composition can contribute to this phenomenon. In order to better understand the microbial dynamics associated with each site type (H/L), we collected bulk soil (BS), rhizosphere soil (RS), and soybean root (R) samples from historically high and low yield sites across eight Pennsylvania farms at V1 (first trifoliate) and R8 (maturity) soybean growth stages (SGS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFoliar fungicide usage in soybeans in the north-central United States increased steadily over the past two decades. An agronomically-interpretable machine learning framework was used to understand the importance of foliar fungicides relative to other factors associated with realized soybean yields, as reported by growers surveyed from 2014 to 2016. A database of 2738 spatially referenced fields (of which 30% had been sprayed with foliar fungicides) was fit to a random forest model explaining soybean yield.
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