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While rock temperature is a key factor for many geomorphic phenomena in high mountains, assessing the small-scale temperature distribution remains challenging. We adapted the program package WUFI®, originally designed to calculate energy and moisture fluxes in building walls, for modeling natural rock faces. We determined physical rock properties and local meteorological parameters as input data for the simulations at rock walls in the Dachstein Mountains, Austria, and calculated annual temperature fluctuations at the surface and at 3, 10, 30, 50 and 100 cm depth, including different elevations, aspects and slope angles. Thirty-seven temperature sensors inserted into drillholes of different depths at ten locations (altitudes from 2300 to 2700 m) were used to validate the simulation. Additionally, surface temperatures were determined from infrared images; these were calibrated for surface emissivity using further temperature sensors. Simulated temperatures and sensor data show very good agreement, with a mean correlation coefficient of 0.94, and the validation of surface temperatures by thermal imaging also delivered good results (r > 0.9). This means that the WUFI software can be used to model complex temperature distributions in natural rock wall settings, thus making it a valuable tool for geomorphological investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With 3 figures and 5 tables Grain legumes are regarded as highly valuable protein source for human and animal nutrition. Legume protein quality is mainly limited by the amino acids (AAs) tryptophan and sulphur AA. Organic farming in particular requires high seed protein quality for livestock feeding, as chemically produced AAs must not be feeded. Breeding attempts to increase contents of limiting AA are required. In the present survey, the AA content of 107 cultivars of important European grain legume species (Lupinus angustifolius, Lupinus luteus, Pisum sativum and Vicia faba) was analysed. AA contents were related to the requirements of growing pigs and human nutrition. Feed quality could be enhanced by choice of high quality varieties according to ideal protein concepts. For example for sulphur, AA feed quality for pigs could be increased by up to 22% (e.g. for L. angustifolius: ideal protein = 100, sample mean = 59.7, sample maximum = 72.7). Regarding livestock nutrition, ranges of limiting AA never reached the qualities reported for soybean seeds. However, an inclusion of high quality legume lines would reduce the need for other high quality components in feed compositions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese semi-winter rapeseed is genetically diverse from European winter rapeseed. Our objectives were (1) to evaluate the potential of semi-winter rapeseed for winter rapeseed hybrid breeding, (2) to assess the relative importance of general combining ability (GCA) vs. specific combining ability (SCA) among combinations between Chinese semi-winter and European winter rapeseed, and (3) to compare the strategies to predict heterosis based on parental genetic distance (GD) estimated from AFLP marker data and GCA for hybrid performance. Four winter male sterile lines from Germany as testers were crossed with 14 Chinese semi-winter rapeseed lines to develop 56 hybrids, which were evaluated together with their parents and commercial hybrids for seed yield, oil content and protein content under three environments in Germany. The Chinese parental lines were not adapted to local environmental conditions as demonstrated by lacking winter hardiness and poor seed yields per se. However, the hybrids between the Chinese parents and the adapted winter rapeseed lines exhibited high heterosis for seed yield. About 20% of the hybrids were significantly superior to the respective hybrid control under three environments. Additive gene effects mainly contributed to hybrid performance since the variance components of GCA were higher as compared with SCA. The correlation between parental GD and hybrid performance was found to be low whereas the correlation between GCA and hybrid performance was high and significant, with correlation coefficients of 0.95 for seed yield, 0.87 for oil content, and 0.91 for protein content, indicating that GCA can predict hybrid performance. These results demonstrate that Chinese semi-winter rapeseed germplasm has a great potential to increase seed yield in winter rapeseed hybrid breeding programmes in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]