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Pollen study is considered one of the most climate proxies distributed worldwide since the beginning of the last century. Some areas and regions still lack such proxy studies, the main objective behind this review is to investigate and draw a picture of the past climate and vegetation pattern in northeastern Iraq, where the area obtains only a few small in size natural Lakes, Fellaw Lake is the largest mountain natural Lake in the area considered within the study. In addition, there are tries to present the paleoclimate of the study area depending mostly on the bulk of research conducted near the area due to the nonexistence of pollen studies implemented on Fellaw Lake yet. Accordingly, and after matching the modern and past vegetation patterns of some adjacent lakes to the area such as Zaribar, Merabad Van Lake, and Akgol Lake, the area likely obtains to some extent a similar past climate trend and events and vegetation components, regardless of the factor of variation in latitude and topographic effects which in turn affect the precipitation amount that could lead possibly to variate of vegetation patterns in these conditions. Ultimately, the study area is located in a very climate-sensitive area, where it's situated among the following regions; Levantine from the west, Mesopotamia from the south, Anatolia from the north, and itself located in the eastern edge of the Irano-Turanian region. This in turn could consider the area to be a refuge for other regions in case of climate deterioration and fluctuations in the late Quaternary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Timothy (Phleum pratense) is a cool-season perennial forage grass widely grown for silage and hay production in northern regions. Climate change scenarios predict an increase in extreme weather events with fluctuating periods of high rainfall, requiring new varieties adapted to waterlogging (WL). Wild accessions could serve as germplasm for breeding, and we evaluated the responses of 11 wild and 8 domesticated accessions of timothy, P. nodosum and P. alpinum from different locations in northern Europe. Young plants at tillering stage were exposed to WL for 21 days in a greenhouse, and responses in growth allocation and root anatomy were studied. All accessions produced adventitious roots and changed allocation of growth between shoot and root as a response to WL, but the magnitude of these responses varied among species and among accessions. P. pratense responded less in these traits in response to WL than the other two species. The ability to form aerenchyma in the root cortex in response to WL was found for all species and also varied among species and among accessions, with the highest induction in P. pratense. Interestingly, some accessions were able to maintain and even increase root growth, producing more leaves and tillers, while others showed a reduction in the root system. Shoot dry weight (SDW) was not significantly affected by WL, but some accessions showed different and significant responses in the rate of production of leaves and tillers. Overall correlations between SDW and aerenchyma and between SDW and adventitious root formation were found. This study identified two wild timothy accessions and one wild P. nodosum accession based on shoot and root system growth, aerenchyma formation and having a root anatomy considered to be favorable for WL tolerance. These accessions are interesting genetic resources and candidates for development of climate-resilient timothy varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A genome-wide association study (GWAS) was used to identify associated loci with early vigor under simulated water deficit and grain yield under field drought in a diverse collection of Iranian bread wheat landraces. In addition, a meta-quantitative trait loci (MQTL) analysis was used to further expand our approach by retrieving already published quantitative trait loci (QTL) from recombinant inbred lines, double haploids, back-crosses, and F2 mapping populations. In the current study, around 16%, 14%, and 16% of SNPs were in significant linkage disequilibrium (LD) in the A, B, and D genomes, respectively, and varied between 5.44% (4A) and 21.85% (6A). Three main subgroups were identified among the landraces with different degrees of admixture, and population structure was further explored through principal component analysis. Our GWAS identified 54 marker-trait associations (MTAs) that were located across the wheat genome but with the highest number found in the B sub-genome. The gene ontology (GO) analysis of MTAs revealed that around 75% were located within or closed to protein-coding genes. In the MQTL analysis, 23 MQTLs, from a total of 215 QTLs, were identified and successfully projected onto the reference map. MQT-YLD4, MQT-YLD9, MQT-YLD13, MQT-YLD17, MQT-YLD18, MQT-YLD19, and MQTL-RL1 contributed to the highest number of projected QTLs and were therefore regarded as the most reliable and stable QTLs under water deficit conditions. These MQTLs greatly facilitate the identification of putative candidate genes underlying at each MQTL interval due to the reduced confidence of intervals associated with MQTLs. These findings provide important information on the genetic basis of early vigor traits and grain yield under water deficit conditions and set the foundation for future investigations into adaptation to water deficit in bread wheat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the first day of June 2010 a very severe tropical storm occurred in the North Indian Ocean near the Arabian Sea, which was named Tropical Cyclone Phet (TCP). During the 7-day period for which it was active, the intensity of TCP reached category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale. On 4 June 2010 at 2130h local time (1700 utc), TCP hit the southeast of Sistan and Baluchestan Province of Iran and, more specifically, the Port of Chabahar. Chabahar received 109.5mm of rain, resulting in economic and social damages. The storm caused substantial physical damage including the destruction of water and electricity infrastructure, flooding, the blocking of roads by debris, and structural damage to roofs and buildings in rural areas over much of the Sistan and Baluchestan Province. The peak activity in Chabahar was between 0330 and 2130h on 5 June 2010, when heavy rainfall occurred due to warm sea surface temperatures and favourable upper-level environment at 850 and 700hPa levels. Synoptic analysis shows that the existence of low pressure at sea-level associated with a deep trough with its axis passing through the vicinity of Chabahar station were the main reasons for heavy rainfall on 5 June 2010 in Chabahar. A strong upward convective motion combined with considerable moisture convergence from Sea of Oman and the Arabian Sea produced a warmed and moistened boundary layer over the region. The moisture convergence at 0330 and 2130h in the lower troposphere shows that, in most cases, the moisture flux convergence maxima coincides with the cyclone centre over the Sea of Oman, which flows to Chabahar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]