This study examined the biomass and carbon pools of the main ecosystem components in an age sequence of five Korean pine plantation forest stands in central Korea. The C contents in the tree and ground vegetation biomass, coarse woody debris, forest floor, and mineral soil were estimated by analyzing the C concentration of each component. The aboveground and total tree biomass increased with increasing stand age. The highest C concentration across this chronosequence was found in the tree branch while the lowest C concentration was found in the ground vegetation. The observed C contents for tree components, ground vegetation, and coarse woody debris were generally lower than the predicted C contents estimated from a biomass C factor of 0.5. Forest floor C content was age-independent. Total mineral soil C content appeared to decline initially after establishing Korean pine plantations and recover by the stand age of 35 years. Although aboveground tree biomass C content showed considerable accumulation with increasing age, the relative contribution of below ground C to total ecosystem C content varied substantially. These results suggest that successional development as temporal factor has a key role in estimating the C storage in Korean pine plantation forests.

The grade of early-diverging eudicots includes five major lineages: Ranunculales, Trochodendrales, Buxales, Proteales and Sabiaceae. To examine the evolution of plastome structure in early-diverging eudicots, we determined the complete plastome sequences of eight previously unsequenced early-diverging eudicot taxa, Pachysandra terminalis (Buxaceae), Meliosma aff. cuneifolia (Sabiaceae), Sabia yunnanensis (Sabiaceae), Epimedium sagittatum (Berberidaceae), Euptelea pleiosperma (Eupteleaceae), Akebia trifoliata (Lardizabalaceae), Stephania japonica (Menispermaceae) and Papaver somniferum (Papaveraceae), and compared them to previously published plastomes of the early-diverging eudicots Buxus, Tetracentron, Trochodendron, Nelumbo, Platanus, Nandina, Megaleranthis, Ranunculus, Mahonia and Macadamia. All of the newly sequenced plastomes share the same 79 protein-coding genes, 4 rRNA genes, and 30 tRNA genes, except for that of Epimedium, in which infA is pseudogenized and clpP is highly divergent and possibly a pseudogene. The boundaries of the plastid Inverted Repeat (IR) were found to vary significantly across early-diverging eudicots; IRs ranged from 24.3 to 36.4kb in length and contained from 18 to 33 genes. Based on gene content, the IR was classified into six types, with shifts among types characterized by high levels of homoplasy. Reconstruction of ancestral IR gene content suggested that 18 genes were likely present in the IR region of the ancestor of eudicots. Maximum likelihood phylogenetic analysis of a 79-gene, 97-taxon data set that included all available early-diverging eudicots and representative sampling of remaining angiosperm diversity largely agreed with previous estimates of early-diverging eudicot relationships, but resolved Trochodendrales rather than Buxales as sister to Gunneridae, albeit with relatively weak bootstrap support, conflicting with what has been found for these three clades in most previous analyses. In addition, Proteales was resolved as sister to Sabiaceae with the highest support (bootstrap >90%) yet observed in plastome-scale phylogenetic analyses.

Potentilleae, one of 10 tribes of the Rosaceae, are mainly distributed in alpine regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The taxonomy of Potentilleae has been challenging due to extensive hybridization, polyploidization, and/or apomixis characterizing several genera of Potentilleae, such as Alchemilla, Argentina, and Potentilla. To help clarify relationships within Potentilleae, a phylogenetic analysis of the tribe with an emphasis on the polyphyletic genus Sibbaldia was carried out using nuclear ribosomal internal and external transcribed spacer regions and the plastid trnL‐F and trnS‐G spacer regions. In agreement with previous phylogenetic analyses, three major clades were identified in the present study: the subtribe Fragariinae, the genera Argentina, and Potentilla. The 15 species of Sibbaldia were recovered in five distinct clades: three in subtribe Fragariinae, one in Argentina, and the last in Potentilla. The recently established genus Chamaecallis, comprising a single species formerly treated in Sibbaldia that has intermediate floral character states with respect to Fragariinae and Potentilla, was recovered as sister to Drymocallis. Morphological character state reconstruction indicated that a reduction in the number of stamens (≤10) is a derived character state that has arisen multiple times in Potentilleae. Molecular dating analyses agreed with previously published estimates and suggested that crown group Potentilleae arose in the Middle to Late Eocene, with most generic‐level divergences occurring in the Oligocene and Miocene.

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Extractable amounts of resveratrol in berry skins and seeds were studied in 120 grape (Vitis) germplasm cultivars during two consecutive years to determine the distribution of resveratrol among the main grape genotypes. Interspecific rootstock cultivars had much higher extractable amounts of resveratrol in skin and seed than all other grape genotypes studied in both years. Extremely high extractable amounts of resveratrol in berry skins [>100 microg g(-1) of skin fresh weight (FW)] and seeds (>20 microg g(-1) of seed FW) were observed on two rootstock cultivars obtained from hybrids of V. monticula x V. riparia. Extractable amounts of resveratrol in berries of rootstock cultivars that are the descendants of V. riparia were also very high. The cultivated European type (V. vinifera) cultivars and their hybrids with V. labrusca had relatively low levels of extractable resveratrol in berry skin and seed, and the extractable amounts of resveratrol in berry skin and seeds were, with a few exceptions, <2 microg g(-1) of skin or seed FW. Extractable amounts of resveratrol in berry skin and seeds were closely related with fruit traits or purpose of uses and climate. Significantly higher extractable amounts of resveratrol in berry skin were found in seeded cultivars than in seedless ones, in both berry skin and seeds in winemaking grapes than in table grapes, and in red grapes than in green ones. Moreover, rainfall during fruit development resulted in higher extractable amounts of resveratrol in berry skin, whereas resveratrol synthesis and accumulation in grape seeds were not related to climate change.

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An 8-week experiment was conducted to examine the e¡ect of partial replacement of ¢sh meal (FM) by a mixture of soybean meal (SBM) and rapeseed meal (RM) in practical diets of juvenile Chinese mitten crab Eriocheir sinensis of initial body weight of 1.54 AE 0.12 g (means AE SD, n 5 90). Five isonitrogenous diets were formulated to contain 35% protein and 5% lipid. Soybean meal and RM mix (1:1 ratio) were included at ¢ve levels of 0 (control), 15%, 30%, 45% and 60%, replacing 0, 20%, 40%, 60% and 80% FM respectively. When FM was replaced by 15% of SBM and RM, crab showed the highest growth, feed utilization and moulting frequency (MF). Fish meal replaced by SBM and RM did not signi¢cantly in£uence crude protein, lipid and moisture contents of whole body crab, but ash content was the lowest for crab fed the diet with FM replaced by 15% of SBM and RM. Apparent digestibility coe⁄cients (ADCs) of dry matter, crude protein and energy tended to decline with increasing inclusion levels of dietary SBM and RM. In general, ADCs of lipid were high (over 90%) and showed no signi¢cant di¡erences among the treatments (P40.05). Based on these observations above, these results indicated that about 40% of FM can be replaced with a mixture of SBM and RM (1:1 ratio) in the diet of E. sinensis without adverse growth performance, compared with the FM-based diet. However, 20% of FM replaced by SBM and RM produced the best growth performance and feed utilization. Ã Values are means AE SD of three replicates and values with the di¡erent letters within the same row are signi¢cantly di¡erent at Po0.05. FM, ¢sh meal; SBM, soybean meal; RM, rapeseed meal. Aquaculture Research, 2011, 42, 1615^1622 Partial replacement of FM by a mixture of SBM and RM Z Luo et al.

No abstract