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Poverty eradication, environmental conservation, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals cannot be achieved without the input and participation of disadvantaged communities in developing mitigation strategies. Over the last few decades, the markets for natural resources as niche products have grown exponentially. Morocco's production and international sales of argan oil are set to exceed current figures within the decade. We interviewed presidents of cooperatives in several villages in the Souss Massa region of Morocco to assess the current status of the argan oil trade, in particular women's roles in production, their economic status, and whether they have access to benefit sharing (ABS). Our results reveal that control over the argan oil trade has shifted into intermediaries that supply larger corporations, and that the survival of cooperatives and women's access to vital income are increasingly threatened. We argue thatthe implementation of ABS is essential to preserve women's access to income and their traditional knowledge associated with oil extraction processes and to ensure the conservation of argan ecosystems as prescribed by the Nagoya Protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty as an object of study in India continues to be the domain of economists, statisticians and demographers. The National Sample Survey Organisation (NSS) serves as the main instrument of data collection to measure poverty relative to economic indicators. In this paper we draw on strengths-based research undertaken in an Indian village to foreground alternative ways of conceptualising and practising data collection when measuring poverty. Explored through an analytics of biopolitics, asset-mapping exercises with young people and women revealed new subjectivities that emerged via illustrative meaning-making and dialogue. This approach to poverty measurement facilitated methods and produced outcomes that were less calculated and predefined than the NSS, and encouraged participation, even questioning of the status quo, in the 'doing' of the methodology itself. A strengths orientation to poverty opens up radical possibilities, particularly in India where the state-sanctioned self--governing body, the Gram Sabhas, has a mandate to provide for the most marginalised groups. And while this governing body is not free from power imbalances, the potential it offers, when combined with strengths-based approaches (SBA) that value people for the expertise they already have, demands renewed attention in practitioner and policy debates in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roots are the interface between the plant and the soil and play a central role in multiple ecosystem processes. With intensification of agricultural practices, rhizosphere processes are being disrupted and are causing degradation of the physical, chemical and biotic properties of soil. However, cover crops, a group of plants that provide ecosystem services, can be utilised during fallow periods or used as an intercrop to restore soil health. The effectiveness of ecosystem services provided by cover crops varies widely as very little breeding has occurred in these species. Improvement of ecosystem service performance is rarely considered as a breeding trait due to the complexities and challenges of belowground evaluation. Advancements in root phenotyping and genetic tools are critical in accelerating ecosystem service improvement in cover crops. In this study, we provide an overview of the range of belowground ecosystem services provided by cover crop roots: (1) soil structural remediation, (2) capture of soil resources and (3) maintenance of the rhizosphere and building of organic matter content. Based on the ecosystem services described, we outline current and promising phenotyping technologies and breeding strategies in cover crops that can enhance agricultural sustainability through improvement of root traits. Summary: Ecosystem service performance is rarely considered as a breeding trait due to the complexities and challenges of belowground evaluation. Advancements in phenotyping technologies and breeding strategies in cover crops are critical to agricultural sustainability through improvement of root traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant-soil feedbacks (PSFs) describe the effect of a plant species on soil properties, which affect the performance of future generations. Here we test the hypothesis that drought alters PSFs by reducing plant-microbe associations and nutrient uptake. We chose two grassland forb species, previously shown to respond differently to soil conditioning and drought, to test our hypothesis. We conditioned unsterilised grassland soil with one generation of each species, and left a third soil unconditioned. We grew a second generation consisting of each combination of plant species, soil, and drought in a full factorial design, and measured soil microbial community and nutrient availability. Scabiosa columbaria displayed negative PSF (smaller plants) under non-droughted conditions, but neutral under drought, suggesting that drought disrupts plant-soil interactions and can advantage the plant. Photosynthetic efficiency of S. columbaria was reduced under drought, but recovered on rewetting regardless of soil conditioning, indicating that PSFs do not impede resilience of this species. Sanguisorba minor showed positive PSFs (larger plants), probably due to an increase in soil N in conspecific soil, but neutral PSF under drought. PSF neutralisation appeared to occur through drought-induced change in the soil microbial community for this species. When S. minor was planted in conspecific soil, photosynthetic efficiency declined to almost zero, with no recovery following rewetting. We attributed this to increased demand for water through higher demand for nutrients with positive PSF. Here we show that drought neutralises PSFs of two grassland forbs, which could have implications for plant communities under climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Cochlear implants (CIs) are auditory prostheses which restore hearing via electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve. The successful adaptation of auditory cognition to the CI input depends to a substantial degree on individual factors. We pursued an electrophysiological approach toward an analysis of cortical responses that reflect perceptual processing stages and higher-level responses to CI input. Performance and event-related potentials on two cross-modal discrimination-following-distraction (DFD) tasks from CI users and normal-hearing (NH) individuals were compared. The visual-auditory distraction task combined visual distraction with following auditory discrimination performance. Here, we observed similar cortical responses to visual distractors (Novelty-N2) and slowed, less accurate auditory discrimination performance in CI users when compared to NH individuals. Conversely, the auditory-visual distraction task was used to combine auditory distraction with visual discrimination performance. In this task we found attenuated cortical responses to auditory distractors (Novelty-P3), slowed visual discrimination performance, and attenuated cortical P3-responses to visual targets in CI users compared to NH individuals. These results suggest that CI users process auditory distractors differently than NH individuals and that the presence of auditory CI input has an adverse effect on the processing of visual targets and the visual discrimination ability in implanted individuals. We propose that this attenuation of the visual modality occurs through the allocation of neural resources to the CI input. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern lettuce cultivars are bred for use under high levels of input of water and nutrients, and therefore less adapted to low-input or organic conditions in which nitrate availability varies over time and within the soil profile. To create robust cultivars it is necessary to assess which traits contribute to optimal resource capture and maximum resource use efficiency. We therefore revisited earlier published results on root growth, resource capture and resource use efficiency of lettuce exposed to localized drought and nitrate shortage in a pot experiment. Root growth in a soil profile with localized resource shortage depended on the resource that was in short supply. We conceptualized a model describing nitrogen uptake and use efficiency. We also investigated the genetic variation among 148 cultivars in resource capture over time and soil depth and in resource use efficiency in four (two locations × two planting dates) field experiments. Cultivars proved to be highly diverse in their ability to capture and use resources. This ability, however, was strongly affected by other sources of variance, stressing the need for an eco-physiological model capable of reducing the residual variance and improving the expression and evaluation of cultivar differences in relation to both resource capture and use efficiency in lettuce. We showed that genetic variation was best expressed under limiting conditions. To improve the conceptualized model further we identified issues requiring further analysis, e.g., the physiological reasons why certain cultivars are capable of quickly responding to changes in the environment to maintain optimal resource capture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aims: To improve vegetable crops adapted to low input and variable resource availability, better understanding is needed of root system functioning, including nitrogen and water capture. Methods: This study quantified shoot and root development and patterns of water and nitrate capture of two lettuce cultivars subjected to temporary drought at two development stages (Trial 1) or to continuous, localized drought and/or nitrate shortage (Trial 2). Results: In Trial 1, early drought slowed down shoot and root growth, whereas late drought enhanced root proliferation in the top 0.1 m. Nitrate capture during drought was sustained by increased nitrate inflow from deeper layers. Plants did not recover fully from drought after re-watering. In Trial 2, root proliferation was stimulated in the drier soil compartment partially compensating reduced water availability and nitrate mobility. Under nitrate shortage, root proliferation was enhanced in the compartment where nitrate was more abundant, irrespective of water availability. Conclusions: Changes observed in the root system are 'feed-forward' mechanisms to sustain resource capture in a limiting growing environment. The type of stress (drought or nitrate shortage) affects coping strategies; nitrate concentration in the soil solution, combined with the nutritional status of the plant will determine the stress response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: •Although dynamic, plant competition is usually estimated as biomass differences at a single, arbitrary time; resource capture is rarely measured. This restricted approach perpetuates uncertainty. To address this problem, we characterized the competitive dynamics of Dactylis glomerata and Plantago lanceolata as continuous trajectories of biomass production and nitrogen (N) capture.•Plants were grown together or in isolation. Biomass and N content were measured at 17 harvests up to 76 d after sowing. Data were fitted to logistic models to derive instantaneous growth and N capture rates.•Plantago lanceolata was initially more competitive in terms of cumulative growth and N capture, but D. glomerata was eventually superior. Neighbours reduced maximum biomass, but influenced both maximum N capture and its rate constant. Timings of maximal instantaneous growth and N capture rates were similar between species when they were isolated, but separated by 16 d when they were competing, corresponding to a temporal convergence in maximum growth and N capture rates in each species. Plants processed N and produced biomass differently when they competed.•Biomass and N capture trajectories demonstrated that competitive outcomes depend crucially on when and how 'competition' is measured. This potentially compromises the interpretation of conventional competition experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Root density distribution of plants is a major indicator of competition between plants and determines resource capture from the soil. This experiment was conducted in 2005 at Anyang, located in the Yellow River region, Henan Province, China. Three cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum L.) cultivars were chosen: hybrid Bt-cultivar CRI46, conventional Bt-cultivars CRI44 and CRI45. Six planting densities were designed, ranging from 1.5 to 12.0 plants/m2Root parameters such as surface area, diameter and length were analyzed by using the DT-SCAN image analysis method. The root length density (RLD), root average diameter and root area index (RAI), root surface area per unit land area, were studied. The results showed that RLD and RAI differed between genotypes; hybrid CRI46 had significantly higher ( P < 0.05) RLD and RAI values than conventional cultivars, especially under low planting densities, less than 3.0 plants/m2The root area index (RAI) of hybrid CRI46 was 61% higher than of CRI44 and CRI45 at the flowering stage. The RLD and RAI were also significantly different ( P= 0.000) between planting densities. The depth distribution of RAI showed that at increasing planting densities RAI was increasingly distributed in the soil layers below 50 cm. The RAI of hybrid CRI46 was for all planting densities, obviously higher than other cultivars during the flowering and boll stages. It was concluded that the hybrid had a strong advantage in root maintenance preventing premature senescence of roots. The root diameter of hybrid CRI46 had a genetically higher root diameter at planting densities lower than 6.0 plants/m2Good associations were found between yield and RAI in different stages. The optimum planting density ranged from 4.50 plants/m2 to 6.75 plants/m2 for conventional cultivars and around 4.0–5.0 plants/m2 for hybrids. (Managing editor: Ya-Qin Han) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the cost of the dimorphic cyanogenic system in Trifolium repens L., genotypes of the cyanogenic (T) and acyanogenic (T) morphs were grown in mixtures over a range of ratios and in pure stands at two levels of total density (low in a first experiment, high in a second experiment). The principles of the competition analysis employed were those related to the inverse linear model response. The morphs were compared using two interaction indices, the substitution rate and the relative resource total (RRT). The relative fitness of the two morphs, i.e. biomass and number of flowers per plant, suggests that the T morph has a competitive advantage over the T morph. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]