Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
4391053 | Ecological Engineering | 2008 | 9 Pages |
Abstract
Kosteletzkya virginica, a perennial halophyte, is native to the American salt marsh. It was introduced into China as a potential species to improve tideland and develop ecologically sound saline agriculture. The experimental results in the fields over 10 years indicated that K. virginica adapts excellently to the tidal flat habitats in China's east coast, with multiple ecobenefits such as landscape beautification, revegetation and providing food source for targeted wildlife or migratory birds. Seed yields of unselected mixed and bred lines were 621Â kg/ha and 957Â kg/ha, respectively. Oil contents in the seeds of the unselected mixed and bred lines were 17.536% and 20.64%, respectively. The unsaturated fatty acids (70.134%) in the seed oil predominated over the saturated ones (29.866%). Seed oil of K. virginica could produce a high quality biodiesel, of which the unsaturated C18 content of the main part was about 68.62% and sulfur content was 0.0003%. Cetane No. and flash point were both higher than those of diesel fuel, and rust class of steel was lower than that of diesel fuel. These indicate that K. virginica could be used as an agroecoengineering species for alternative agricultural production and for revegetation of salt-affected tidal flats in China's east coast.
Keywords
Related Topics
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Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Authors
C.-J. Ruan, H. Li, Y.-Q. Guo, P. Qin, J.L. Gallagher, D.M. Seliskar, S. Lutts, G. Mahy,