Ajayan is the Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson Professor in Engineering and a professor of mechanical engineering and materials science chemistry and chemical and biomolecular engineering.
Aphaenogaster ants are the dominant woodland seed dispersers in eastern forests. So it's possible that the displacement of A. picea may affect the spread of seeds produced by early spring ephemerals said Warren. By comparing data collected in 1974 to current data Warren
. Because A. picea break dormancy at cooler temperatures than A. rudis they become active earlier in the spring when certain forest ephemerals such as Erythronium americanum (trout lilies) bloom.
The absence of A. picea may affect the spread of seeds produced by early-flowering woodland plants.
#Toxicity map of brain may help protect cognition for cancer patientsnew research from Wake Forest Baptist Medical center is giving radiation oncologists who treat brain tumors a better understanding of how to preserve the brain's functions while still killing cancer.
Ann M. Peiffer Ph d. assistant professor of radiation oncology at Wake Forest Baptist and colleagues looked at how radiation treatment to different brain areas impacts function to help protect cognition
The toxicity map was created by taking advantage of data from larger clinical trials held at Wake Forest Baptist.
Individuals were supported also by Wake Forest School of medicine Medical student Research Program Louis Argenta Physician-Scientist Scholarship Fund NIH T32 CA113267 and the Department of Radiation Oncology.
Michael D. Chan M d. all of Wake Forest Baptist. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Wake Forest Baptist Medical center.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e
#Long-term water quality trends in near-pristine streamsfor the first time a study has compared water quality trends in forested streams across the country that are undisturbed largely by land use
The study focused on sites that are part of the USDA Forest Service's Experimental Forest
These long-term water quality data from experimental forests are said a treasure Sherri Johnson a research ecologist with the Pacific Northwest Research Station
The researchers analyzed 559 years of stream nitrate and 523 years of stream ammonium data from 22 streams in 7 experimental forests across the country.
They also observed that within a forest trends were not always in sync--at some sites two streams within an experimental forest had opposing trends for the same type of nitrogen for the same period of time suggesting that the controls on stream nitrogen concentrations may vary among and within sites.
The above story is provided based on materials by USDA Forest Service-Pacific Northwest Research Station. Note:
A research project at Lund University has looked at the effects of hunting on the forest.
and structure of the forest just as logging does but without felling any trees said Ola Olsson a researcher at thedepartment of Biology Lund University.
If fewer fruit seeds are spread fewer fruit trees will grow in the forests. Instead species with wind-dispersed seeds will most likely take over.
Ola Olsson stressed that the present study does not give any definite answers to how the composition of the forests could change
because those who live in the vicinity of the forests gather a lot of fruit and nuts he said.
because primates cannot live in a forest without fruit trees. Ola Olsson would like to see better protection for nature reserves and national parks and better information and education of local people in the villages.
#Suggestions for a middle ground between unlogged forest and intensively managed landsit is recognized increasingly that protected areas alone are not sufficient for successful biodiversity conservation
and that management of production areas (e g. forestry and agricultural land) plays a crucial role in that respect.
Retention forestry and agroforestry are two land management systems aiming to reconcile the production of human goods with biodiversity conservation.
The retention forestry model is as the name suggests based on retaining some of the local forest structures
Agroforestry addresses this need through the intentional management of shade trees alongside agricultural crops. Despite the technical differences both systems provide an intermediary between unlogged forest
and intensively managed land. A paper recently published in the open access journal Nature Conservation draws an important parallel between the two systems.
From a conservation point of view both retention forestry and agroforestry are expected to provide a variety of ecological benefits such as the maintenance and restoration of ecosystem heterogeneity.
They also provide habitat for tree-dependent species outside the forest as well as increased connectivity for forest species within landscapes.
and Environmental Studies at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) calls for studies addressing cost-effectiveness of different retention and agroforestry systems in relation to biodiversity conservation argues for a stronger
#Community approach effective in fight against diabetesnew research from Wake Forest Baptist Medical center shows that a diabetes prevention program led by community health workers is effective at reducing blood glucose
We wanted to take this intervention out to people in the community rather than having them have to come to us in a clinical setting said the study's lead author Jeff Katula Ph d. assistant professor of health and exercise sciences at Wake Forest University and joint
assistant professor of epidemiology and prevention at Wake Forest Baptist. Given the high prevalence of obesity and metabolic syndrome and risk for diabetes our study shows we can provide an effective program in a community setting.
Because the DPP involved substantial amounts of resources and specialized personnel the goal of the Wake Forest Baptist study was to test a translation of the DPP model in community settings.
Forest Baptist; David Goff Jr. M d. Ph d. of the University of Colorado School of Public health;
and Michael Lawlor Ph d. of Wake Forest University. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Wake Forest Baptist Medical center.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e
#Its in the cards: Human evolution influences gamblers decisionsnew research from an international team of scientists suggests evolution
The Cancer Institute of New jersey is a Center of Excellence of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical school.
and the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical school and provides help on quitting tobacco use through treatment education research and advocacy.
and lack of employment would be related to a higher level of relighting says Dr. Steinberg who is also an associate professor of medicine at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical school and an associate professor of health education and behavioral science at UMDNJ
This month the journal Mycologia will publish research by a team of U s. Forest Service scientists
The significance of the Forest Service's recent research will have an immediate and direct benefit to WNS response at a national scale according to Katie Gillies imperiled species coordinator At bat Conservation International.
Daniel Lindner a research plant pathologist with the Forest Service's Northern Research Station led research that identified 35 species of Geomyces more than doubling the number of known species. Lindner
Forest Service scientists collaborated with the U s. Geological Survey and the University of Wisconsin for both studies.
White Nose Syndrome is arguably the most devastating wildlife disease we've faced said Michael T. Rains Director of the Forest Service's Northern Research Station.
Forest Service scientists are conducting research to halt this disease and save bats which are so important to agriculture and forest ecosystems.
Scientists identified Geomyces destructans as the cause of WNS in 2012. Conclusively identifying the fungus
The above story is provided based on materials by USDA Forest Service-Northern Research Station. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
and other woody debris that are inevitable byproducts of timber harvest could be among the most important components of postharvest landscapes according to a new study led by the U s. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station.
The findings which are among the first to speak to the benefits of second-growth logging debris are published online in the journal Forest Ecology and Management.
At levels typically left after forest harvesting where 40 percent of the ground is covered by logging debris we found that debris inhibited the growth of competing herbaceous vegetation
and so preserved soil water said Tim Harrington a research forester with the station and the study's lead.
and Oregon affiliated with the North american Long-term Soil Productivity study a collaborative program launched by Forest Service Research and development more than two decades ago.
Industrial forest managers and private landowners in Washington and Oregon are already using early results of the study to prevent Scotch broom invasions Harrington said.
But these new findings suggest that long-term forest productivity will benefit from debris retention indicating much broader applicability of the research Harrington said.
The above story is provided based on materials by USDA Forest Service-Pacific Northwest Research Station. Note:
The Sonoran Desert and Sky Islands ecoregion lies at the northern edge of the North american monsoon where vegetation ranges from saguaro-studded subtropical desert in the lowlands to high-altitude boreal forests.
#Are tropical forests resilient to global warming? Tropical forests are less likely to lose biomass--plants and plant material--in response to greenhouse gas emissions over the twenty-first century than may previously have been thought suggests a study published online this week in Nature Geoscience.
In the most comprehensive assessment yet of the risk of tropical forest dieback due to climate change the results have important implications for the future evolution of tropical rainforests including the role they play in the global climate system and carbon cycle.
To remain effective programmes such as the United Nation's Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation+scheme require rainforest stability in effect locking carbon within the trees.
Dr Huntingford and colleagues used computer simulations with 22 climate models to explore the response of tropical forests in The americas Africa and Asia to greenhouse-gas-induced climate change.
They found loss of forest cover in only one model and only in The americas. The researchers found that the largest source of uncertainty in the projections to be differences in how plant physiological processes are represented ahead of the choice of emission scenario and differences between various climate projections.
Although this work suggests that the risk of climate-induced damage to tropical forests will be relatively small the paper does list where the considerable uncertainties remain in defining how ecosystems respond to global warming.
and ecological response there is evidence of forest resilience for The americas (Amazonia and Central america) Africa and Asia.
Co-author Dr David Galbraith from the University of Leeds said This study highlights why we must improve our understanding of how tropical forests respond to increasing temperature and drought.
Different vegetation models currently simulate remarkable variability in forest sensitivity to climate change. And while these new results suggest that tropical forests may be quite resilient to warming it is important also to remember that other factors not included in this study such as fire
and deforestation will also affect the carbon stored in tropical forests. Their impacts are also difficult to simulate.
It is therefore critical that modelling studies are accompanied by further comprehensive forest observations. Co-author Dr Lina Mercado from the University of Exeter
and the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology said Building on this study one of the big challenges that remains is to include in Earth system models a full representation of thermal acclimation and adaptation of the rainforest to warming.
These changes will affect local residents through changes in provisioning ecosystem services such as timber and traditional foods says Research Professor Bruce Forbes University of Lapland Rovaniemi Finland.
and Senior Scientist Woods Hole Research center Falmouth USA Think of migration of birds to the Arctic in the summer and hibernation of bears in the winter:
Being predominantly ground-living they occur widely in savanna woodlands but also occasionally in forests where they are camouflaged well.
They usually share the litter microhabitats with several other species of the family Corinnidae. The spiders from this cryptic ground-dwelling genus in the continental Afrotropical Region are revised in a study published in the open access journal Zookeys.
C. flavoplumosa provides a useful example of extreme habitat flexibility occupying habitats from forests to semideserts.
but also occurs in various forest types and grasslands. They have been collected occasionally in agroecosystems specifically from the canopies of orchard crops in South africa (avocadoes macadamias and pistachios)
and believed to be endemic to the Afromontane and coastal forests in South africa. The species has a distribution falling entirely within the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany Centre of Endemism in South africa where an extraordinary amount of endemic species is found with around 30 endemic reptiles and emblematic mammals such as the blue duiker antelope.
Bats make up a large component of mammalian diversity in forest ecosystems where they play an important role as insect predators.
and the timber industry--over allowing stand-replacing crown fires on public forests Fontaine said. This study fills a critical gap on how fire affects an important group of animals.
and Inyo National Forests where the 2002 Mcnally Fire burned more than 150000 acres. The fire burned with mixed severity leaving a mosaic of low-to high-severity damage as well as patches of unburned forest.
The study compared bat foraging activity in areas of unburned moderately burned and severely burned forest.
The researchers conducted surveys in 2003 using high-frequency microphones to record the ultrasonic echolocation pulses that bats use to hunt insects.
and excitement to the countryside but left unchecked they threaten our woodland biodiversity. Trying to control deer without a robust understanding of their true numbers can be like sleepwalking into disaster.
In Thetford Forest despite an active programme of professional management culling thousand of deer the numbers culled did not offset productivity.
and elsewhere in Europe Increasing deer populations are a serious threat to biodiversity--particularly impacting on woodland birds such as migrant warblers and the nightingale.
when woodlands are under so much pressure from deer. Current approaches to deer management are failing to contain the problem--often
Since state departments of agriculture have responsibility for most regulatory bodies occasionally sharing responsibility with environmental agencies fewer plants that invade forests pastureland
Other partners using NREL's rapid analytical tool for fuel research besides Arborgen are the University of Florida the University of Georgia Greenwood Resources the Bioenergy Science Center
where the rain forest supplies more food the influence of the dominant male increases. In order to escape his attention many other males remain small.
In Malay the word orangutan means man of the woods. In fact however these rain forest dwellers clad in a reddish-brown coat are our most distant relatives within the great ape family.
The orangutan differs from all of the others because the male can go through two different phases of development.
During a five-year period of observation in the rain forest only a single male was seen to develop secondary sexual characteristics.
As there is more food available in the jungle on Sumatra than in the forests of Borneo the dominant male has sufficient time to keep a close watch over the females in his environment
which the smaller ones never prevail the advantages of developmental arrest disappear The fact that food supply in the forest has such a strong impact on the mating behaviour of the orangutan came as a surprise to Dunkel.
while feeding in an ancient tropical forest. The new work was conducted in Argentina where scientists had thought Earth's first grasslands emerged 38 million years ago an assumption based on fossils of these specialized teeth.
Instead there were tropical forests rich with palms bamboos and gingers according to Caroline Strã mberg UW assistant professor of biology and lead author of an article in Nature Communications.
--when ancient mammals in that part of the world developed specialized teeth--were overwhelmingly from tropical forests Strã mberg said.
#Extinction looms for forest elephants: 60 percent of Africas forest elephants killed for their ivory over past decadeafrican forest elephants are being poached out of existence.
A study just published in the online journal PLOS ONE shows that across their range in Central africa a staggering 62 percent of all forest elephants have been killed for their ivory over the past decade.
The analysis confirms what conservationists have feared: the rapid trend towards extinction--potentially within the next decade--of the forest elephant says Dr. Samantha Strindberg of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) one of the lead authors of the study.
Saving the species requires a coordinated global effort in the countries where elephants occur--all along the ivory smuggling routes and at the final destination in the Far east.
The study--the largest ever conducted on the African forest elephant--includes the work of more than 60 scientists between 2002 and 2011
and the Republic of congo) walking over 13000 kilometers (more than 8000 miles) and recording over 11000 samples for the analysis. The paper shows that almost a third of the land where African forest elephants were able to live 10 years ago has become too dangerous
Historically elephants ranged right across the forests of this vast region of over 2 million square kilometers (over 772000 square miles)
Although the forest cover remains it is empty of elephants demonstrating that this is not a habitat degradation issue.
Results show clearly that forest elephants were increasingly uncommon in places with high human density high infrastructure density such as roads high hunting intensity
Distinct from the African savannah elephant the African forest elephant is slightly smaller than its better known relative
and is considered by many to be a separate species. They play a vital role in maintaining the biodiversity of one of Earth's critical carbon sequestering tropical forests.
A rain forest without elephants is a barren place. They bring it to life they create the trails
and keep open the forest clearings other animals use; they disperse the seeds of many of the rainforest trees--elephants are forest gardeners at a vast scale.
We have been carrying out surveys in the forests of Gabon for over a decade and seen an increasing number of elephant carcasses over the years say co-authors Mr. Rostand Aba'a of the Gabon National parks Service and Mr. Marc Ella Akou of WWF Gabon.
Earlier this month the government of Gabon announced the loss of approximately 11000 forest elephants in Mink b National park between 2004 and 2012;
previously holding Africa's largest forest elephant population. President Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon says:
Forest elephants need two things: they need adequate space in which to range normally and they need protection.
Unprotected roads most often associated with exploitation for timber or other natural resources push deeper and deeper into the wilderness tolling the death knell for forest elephants.
Large road-free areas must be maintained and the roads that do exist must have effective wildlife protection plans
The authors of the paper--titled Devastating Decline in Forest Elephants in Central africa--are: Fiona Maisels Samantha Strindberg Stephen Blake George Wittemyer John Hart Elizabeth A. Williamson Rostand Aba'a Gaspard Abitsi Ruffin D. Ambahe Fidel
Growing up in the Caatinga region--a unique dry woodland biome in northeastern Brazil with many endemic legume species--Cardoso was fascinated by the beautiful mass flowering of leafless Luetzelburgia trees during the dry season.
and peat swamp forests. These harsh coastal biomes are characterized by thick vegetation--particularly clusters of salt-loving mangrove trees
which is waterlogged the remains of partially decomposed leaves and wood. As such swamp forests are among the few areas in many African
and Asian countries that humans are interested relatively less in exploiting (though that is changing). Yet conservationists have been slow to consider these tropical hideaways
and leopards) known to divide their time between their natural forest habitats and some 47 swamp forests in Africa and Asia.
But the presence of endangered cats and primates in swamp forests might be overlooked seriously Nowak found.
Among big cats the Bengal tiger for instance holds its sole ground in Bangladesh in the Sundarbans the world's largest mangrove forest.
Nowak concludes that swamp forests beg further exploration as places where endangered species such as lowland gorillas
The paper Mangrove and Peat Swamp Forests: Refuge Habitats for Primates and Felids was published in the journal Folia Primatologica.
He studied forests he studied prairies he studied roadside plants he studied old fields; he even moved some plants to his own yard
and beetles usually live in natural or semi-natural habitats such as the edges of forests hedgerows or grasslands.
#Democratic Republic of congos best run reserve is hemorrhaging elephantsthe Democratic Republic of congo's (DRC) largest remaining forest elephant population located in the Okapi Faunal Reserve (OFR) has declined by 37 percent in the last five years
if poaching of forest elephants in DRC continues unabated the species could be extinguished nearly from Africa's second largest country within ten years.
According to WCS the primary reason for the recent decline in forest elephant numbers is ivory poaching.
In a 1995-1997 survey of the OFR--a UNESCO World Heritage Site--WCS found that there were approximately 6800 forest elephants living in an area of almost 14000 km2 (8682 square miles.
Thus by 2007 OFR had DRC's largest remaining forest elephant population. During the war park guards could not protect much of OFR
and facilitated by increased access to previously remote forests. Ivory poaching is undertaken increasingly by highly organized heavily armed criminal cartels.
Despite these hard realities OFR remains the most important site for the conservation of forest elephants and other large mammals in DRC.
Additional results from recent surveys show that other wildlife in the reserve fared much better including the highly important eastern chimpanzee population (approximately 6000 individuals) okapi and duikers (small forest antelopes) with almost no change in their estimated
We urge the international community to support the DRC in the fight against the threat of extinction of the forest elephant.
#Research supports promise of cell therapy for bowel diseaseresearchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical center and colleagues have identified a special population of adult stem cells in bone marrow that have the natural ability to migrate to the intestine
of regenerative medicine at Wake Forest Baptist's Institute for Regenerative Medicine and colleagues. The new research complements a 2012 report by Almeida-Porada's team that identified stem cells in cord blood that are involved in blood vessel formation
Co-authors were Saloomeh Mokhtari Christopher D. Porada and Melisa Soland Wake Forest Baptist; and Evan Colletti Craig Osborne Karen Schlauch Deena El Shabrawy Takashi Yamagami and Esmail D. Zanjani University of Nevada.
while Almeida-Porada was at the University of Nevada prior to joining Wake Forest Baptist.
The above story is provided based on materials by Wake Forest Baptist Medical center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
residence can extend up to 200 meters into the surrounding forest. The study also determined that sensitive bird species such as the hermit thrush
and scarlet tanager prefer unbroken forests with no houses. Others like the blue jay and black-capped chickadee seem to like having
Calculating their occurrence at increasing distances from the residences they determined that human-adapted species are 36 percent more likely to occur near the homes than in the surrounding mixed hardwood-conifer forests
Beyond 200 meters occupancy rates were similar to the surrounding forest. The report appears in the current online edition of the Journal of Landscape and Urban planning.
and food sources into the forest as well as by physically altering and fragmenting habitat. These changes can have myriad impacts including altered species behavior
The presence of some species like the scarlet tanager are a good indicator of undisturbed forest health.
#Science synthesis to help guide land management of U s. forestsa team of more than a dozen scientists from the U s. Forest Service's Pacific Southwest (PSW)
The new planning rule requires the forests to consider the best available science and encourages a more active role for research in plan development.
The authors considered the connections between the terrestrial forests and the streams as well as how restoration of ecological processes interfaces with the social and economic concerns of communities.
The above story is provided based on materials by USDA Forest Service-Pacific Southwest Research Station. Note:
The rosin and turpentine derived from their wood is rich in hydrocarbons similar but not identical to some components of petroleum.
Together with graduate student Perry Wilbon Tang worked with Fuxiang Chu of the Chinese Academy of Forestry to prepare the first comprehensive review of terpenes terpenoids
#Thigh fat may be to blame for older adults who slow downa new study from Wake Forest Baptist Medical center shows that an increase in fat throughout the thigh is predictive of mobility loss in otherwise healthy
Lead author Kristen Beavers Ph d. and colleagues at Wake Forest Baptist said the findings suggest that prevention of age-related declines in walking speed isn't just about preserving muscle mass it's also about preventing fat gain.
Research (grant R01-NR012459) the Wake Forest University Claude D Pepper Older Americans Independence Center (P30-AG21332) and an individual postdoctoral fellowship (F32-AG039186;
Daniel P. Beavers Ph d. Denise K. Houston Ph d. Barbara J. Nicklas and Stephen Kritchevsky all of Wake Forest Baptist;
The above story is provided based on materials by Wake Forest Baptist Medical center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
The specimen was collected in a private ranch near a forest fragment surrounded by farms in the Atlantic Forest biome one of the most threatened in Brazil.
It can be found in a variety of habitats including woodland Jarrah forest and sand plain vegetation.
The discovery of this new relict species is an important signal to reinforce the conservation of Brazilian Atlantic Forest biome.
Certainly there are many more mecopterans species yet to be discovered in these forests said the lead author Dr Renato Machado from the Texas A & M University college Station USA.
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