New genetics research underscores importance of protecting forest corridorsas rapid economic expansion continues to shape the Asian landscape on
Scientists at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute have used genetic analysis to find that the natural forest corridors in India are essential to ensuring a future for these species. According to two studies recently published in two papers these corridors are successfully connecting populations of tigers
The Kanha and Pench reserves and the Satpura and Melghat reserves are connected via forest corridors that tigers leopards humans and cattle share.
Several coal mines have been proposed in the forest corridor between the Satpura and Pench tiger reserves as has the widening of a national highway (NH-7)
The other authors are Thomas Wood in the Department of Environmental science and Policy at George Mason University and H. S. Panwar former director of Project Tiger India and Wildlife Institute
Hoh Xil National Nature Reserve and Qinghai Provincial Forestry Bureau of China provided invaluable support to make it happen.
The research involved Pop's group led by Beckman Fellow Josh Wood growing the graphene at the Micro
Still in development it's already led to seeing for the first time in satellite imagery an obscured slow-moving decline and recovery of trees in Pacific Northwest forests.
It was as it turns out bugs says Robert Kennedy a remote sensing specialist at Boston University who consulted with U s. Forest Service experts to confirm his observations.
Kennedy's new way of viewing Landsat imagery has changed already how the Forest Service in the Pacific Northwest operates its yearly forest monitoring program that uses ground stations satellite imagery
to study changes in the Amazon and forests in Indonesia. Now with processing power doubled
when he partnered with the Forest Service --but also the slow and subtle changes that take place over many years including pulses of insect outbreaks.
And the forest gradually recovers. Kennedy says to confirm the satellite data they hiked into areas with recent known budworm outbreaks near Mount Rainier With the decline
and regrowth patterns from the new maps in hand Kennedy says we stand out on the ground in the forest
The U s. Forest Service and other agencies have established harvesting practices that greatly mitigate damage to forests caused by logging
We knew that forestry and water managers were expecting big changes in water quality as a result of the pine beetle outbreak so we decided to pool our university
Study co-author and CU-Boulder Research Associate James Mccutchan of CIRES said the new results should help forest managers develop more effective ways to harvest timber
The researchers used computer modeling to show that in western forests such a compensatory response provides potent water quality protection against the adverse effects of nitrates
and Thomas Veblen from CU-Boulder John Stednick from Colorado State university Charles Rhoades from the U s. Forest Service Jennifer Briggs and David Clow from the U s. Geological Survey
and Wyoming forests is unprecedented part of an beetle outbreak that ranges from Mexico to Canada. A November 2012 study by CU-Boulder doctoral student Teresa Chapman showed the 2001-02 drought greatly accelerated the development of the mountain pine beetle epidemic.
The study area included measurements from the Fraser Experimental Forest near Granby Colo. a 23000-acre study area established by the USFS in 1937.
and G. Craig Wood and Christopher Still of Geisinger Healthcare System. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Penn State.
The above story is provided based on materials by Swiss Federal Institute for Forest Snow and Landscape Research WSL.
#Genome of diamondback moth provides new clues for sustainable pest managementan international research consortium led by Fujian Agriculture Forestry University (FAFU)
After 10 years of examining every inch of the San Lorenzo forest in Panama from the forest floor to the top of the forest canopy the researchers have collected
and identified 130000 bugs representing over 6000 different species. A large portion of all species discovered in the forest were found in a rather small area--a fortuitous development for the researchers.
What this means basically is that we can determine the diversity of species within a tropical forest by examining smaller areas
Greater diversity of flora means more speciesyet another interesting result of the study is that the number of arthropods can be determined based on the number of plants living in the forest.
#Bengali forests are fading awaymangrove forests of the Sundarbans are disappearing taking endangered species like the Bengal tiger with them.
The name'Sundarban'can be translated literally as'beautiful forest'in the Bengali language. The area is is the largest block of continuous mangrove forest in the world being home to almost 500 species of reptile fish bird
one of only a handful of remaining forests big enough to hold several hundred tigers.
They are also the most carbon rich forests in the tropics with high carbon sequestration potential meaning their degradation
Mangroves comprise less than 1 per cent of all forest areas across the world amounting to roughly half the size of the UK.
at Wake Forest Baptist Medical center and leader of two nonsurgical weight-control programs. Ard's approach is shared by the leaders of other weight-control programs at Wake Forest Baptist including those for children and older adults.
All of these programs stress education--not just for the people facing weight issues but for their families too--and long-term commitment to changed habits in addition to healthier diet and exercise practices.
Some people view bariatric surgery as a quick fix for obesity but at Wake Forest Baptist more is expected of patients than just showing up for the procedure.
Susan and Allen Fletcher had bariatric surgery at Wake Forest Baptist after years of following diets that only worked for brief periods.
You improve those parenting skills you can improve the children's weight said Skelton director of the Brenner FIT (Families in Training program at Wake Forest Baptist's Brenner Children's Hospital.
but are no less critical for older adults according to Barbara Nicklas Ph d. who leads weight-management efforts for seniors through the Sticht Center on Aging at Wake Forest Baptist.
Wake Forest Baptist's weight-management efforts are aimed at people of all ages because of changes in behavior toward food and nutrition especially in the past 20 years.
The above story is provided based on materials by Wake Forest Baptist Medical center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
The original article was written by Matt Wood. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e
research findsnew research from Wake Forest Baptist Medical center shows that patients suffering from aggressive brain tumors can be treated effectively with smaller radiation fields to spare the rest of the brain and preserve cognition.
and effectively treat them with smaller radiation fields to spare the rest of their normal brain said lead investigator Michael D. Chan M d. assistant professor of radiation oncology at Wake Forest Baptist.
For this retrospective study records for 161 patients treated at Wake Forest Baptist over the last 10 years were reviewed.
Chan said that in the 1990s Wake Forest Baptist's Edward G. Shaw M d. professor of radiation oncology was part of a group that pioneered using smaller margins
B. Tatter M d. Ph d. Waldemar Debinski M d. Ph d. and Edward G. Shaw M d. M. A. 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 team points out that vast tonnages of seeds from the deciduous mahua (Madhuca indica) and semi-deciduous sal (Shorea robusta) trees are simply left to waste on the forest floor.
because the tree has greater value for its wood and also has a much longer maturation period than mahua at 25 years.
It is estimated that there are 64 million hectares of wasteland across India including 15 million hectares of degraded notified forestland that could be converted to plantation to provide sal
#Mixed forests more productive than monoculturesforestry and nature conservation can benefit from promoting a diversity of tree species new study finds.
Modern forestry is largely based on monocultures--in Sweden usually pine or spruce--mainly because it is considered more rational.
However a forest contributes more ecosystem services than timber production such as biological diversity carbon storage and berries.
A new study from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and Future Forests shows that mixed forests in comparison with monocultures have positive effects on several different areas including production.
The study performed by an international research group is based on material from the Swedish National Forest Inventory and the Swedish Forest Soil Inventory.
In order to attain more of all services forestry may thus need to make use of different tree species. Other studies of forests in Central europe the Mediterranean region
and Canada support these findings. The study also investigated the relationship between the various ecosystem services.
For example high tree growth appears to be negatively related to the production of both berries and food for wildlife and to the occurrence of dead wood.
The new study which is published in the scientific journal Nature Communications runs partly counter to conventional thinking in forestry in Sweden.
According to 2011 data from the Swedish National Forest Inventory only about 7. 5 percent of the productive forest land has mixed forests.
Our findings show that both forestry and nature conservation stand to gain by promoting a greater variety of tree types thereby providing more diverse ecosystem services says Jan Bengtsson from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
and wheat bran used as animal Feed in Finland the proportion of forest biomass and conifer biomass in particular is significant.
#New company applies regenerative medicine to corneal transplantsocular Systems Inc. OSI) Wake Forest Baptist Medical center
The company formed by OSI the sponsor and initial funder of the project Wake Forest Baptist Medical center
and scaffolds can theoretically be applied to almost any tissue in the body said Anthony Atala M d. director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
Ph d. PTRP president and Chief Innovation Officer at Wake Forest Baptist. This project is an example of the innovation that can be sparked in a research-park environment.
Shay Soker Ph d. professor of regenerative medicine at Wake Forest Baptist is the lead scientist for the project.
and Wake Forest Baptist Department of Ophthalmology physicians Craig Greven M d. chair Matthew Giegengack M d. assistant professor and Keith Walter M d. associate professor.
Wake Forest Baptist Medical center and Keith Walter M d. receive royalties from OSI from sales of the Endoserter device
The above story is provided based on materials by Wake Forest Baptist Medical center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length t
#Climate change not responsible for altering forest tree composition, experts saychange in disturbance regimes--rather than a change in climate--is largely responsible for altering the composition of Eastern forests according to a researcher in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.
Forests in the Eastern United states remain in a state of disequilibrium stemming from the clear-cutting
and large-scale burning that occurred in the late 1800s and early 1900s contends Marc Abrams professor of forest ecology and physiology.
Moreover Abrams noted since about 1930--during the Smokey Bear era--aggressive forest-fire suppression has had a far greater influence on shifts in dominant tree species than minor differences in temperature.
Looking at the historical development of Eastern forests the results of the change in types of disturbances--both natural and man-caused--are much more significant than any change in climate said Abrams who is the Steimer Professor of Agriculture
This includes the forest composition of the eastern U s. To determine how forest tree species have responded to changes in disturbance regimes temperature
and precipitation over long periods of time Abrams collaborated with Gregory Nowacki a scientist with the U s. Department of agriculture Forest Service office in Milwaukee on a study of the tolerance and sensitivity of trees to various factors.
Maple increases and associated mesophication--the forest growing increasingly dense cool shady and moist in the absence of regular fire--in oak-pine systems were delayed until mid-20th century fire suppression.
Because mesophication is ongoing eastern U s. forests formed during the catastrophic disturbance era followed by fire suppression will remain in climate disequilibrium into the foreseeable future.
The Kansas Forest Service is asking residents to help save trees by buying their firewood locally all to prevent the further spread of an invasive beetle killing millions of ash trees.
The emerald ash borer is a small green metallic beetle that was detected first in the United states in 2002 in Detroit said Ryan Armbrust a forest health specialist with the Kansas Forest Service.
or just a backyard fire pit try to get your wood from as close to where you're going to burn it as possible.
If you suspect you have infected an tree located outside of the already confirmed locations contact the Kansas Forest Service Kansas Department of agriculture or K-State Research and Extension.
Retrieving small genomes from a mix of organismsscientists from the IZW led by Alex Greenwood publish in PLOS ONE a simple way to retrieve small genomes from a mix of various organisms.
Very easily says Alex Greenwood from the German Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research.
Greenwood's doctoral student Kyriakos Tsangaras discovered the additional value of hybridisation capture by chance. This technology is based on tiny magnetic beads with short baitsequences of a few base pairs (oligonucleotides
Yes we have the sequence he then told Greenwood. But we also have much more!
This does not make any sense at all was thought Greenwoods first. However control experiments led to the same intriguing result.
Greenwood asked Tom Gilbert from the Center of Geogenetics in Copenhagen to help analyse this phenomenon.
in addition is discounted as junk says Greenwood. The authors call this by-catch process in which a single DNA fragment catches overlapping flanking sequences Capflank.
(or at least large sections of it) from pathogenic variants of influenza viruses for example or from completely new pathogens explains Greenwood.
Greenwood's colleagues successfully applied Capflank to samples from koalas kept in museums. Capflank is at its most efficient though with fresh DNA.
and the UAH suggests that foliar fertilization could be used as a tool to produce plants for high quality reforestation.
This technique has not been tested in the forestry area but its application for nursery production can provide solutions to improve plant quality produced for afforestation.
Besides foliar feeding could be a tool potentially useful in forest plantations and in situations in
Likewise the differences observed at the absorption rates between both species will allow researchers to predict the effects of atmospheric deposition on forest systems depending on the dominant species. Story Source:
However historical and aerial photos from 1927 and 1940 showed solid forests meaning little evidence of beaver activity.
Synthetic beans and mushrooms--accessories for the cursed humpbacked witch in a Baylor University production of the musical Into the Woods--recently emerged from a little machine tucked away in a corner of the costume shop at Baylor.
As scientists of the Hemholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) write in the scientific journal Nature Communications the effect of the degradation has been underestimated in fragmented forest areas
since it was hitherto not possible to calculate the loss of the biomass at the forest edges and the higher emission of carbon dioxide.
According to their calculations the forest fragmentation results in up to a fifth more carbon dioxide being emitted by the vegetation.
To estimate the additional carbon emissions at the forest edges the UFZ scientists developed a new approach that integrates the results from remote sensing ecology and forest modelling.
For their study they initially modelled the percentage loss of carbon in forest border after the deforestation of the surrounding area.
These losses of the differently fragmented and differently sized forest areas were determined in comparison to large unchanged forests in the tropical rainforests in the Amazon and in the Brazilian coastal tropical forest Mata Atlã¢ntica (Brazilian Atlantic Forest.
The scientists defined a strip of 100 meters that runs from the edge of the forest into the inner forest as the peripheral area.
The consequences for the trees at the newly created edges of the forest are known. The climate conditions change significantly:
Tree mortality increases so that they can't store as much carbon as healthy trees in the centre of the forest the core area says Dr. Sandro PÃ tz the main author of the study.
In order to calculate these degradation effects the UFZ scientists used the forest simulation model FORMIND. This makes it possible to determine the percentage loss of carbon of forest fragments of different sizes.
According to this the percentage loss of stored biomass rises in inverse proportion to the size of the remaining rest of the forest.
It is only when a forest area of 10000 hectares is reached that the percentage loss recedes to almost zero depending on the shape of the forest fragment.
The UFZ scientists also used satellite images to analyse how the tropical rainforest is distributed spatially in the Amazon region and the coastal tropical forest.
To take as many small forest areas as possible into account they worked with a very high resolution of up to approx. 30 meters:
In science this is the processing limit since the data volumes for the Amazon are very large says UFZ scientist Prof.
According to the records the coastal tropical forest with a total of eleven percent of its original surface area only takes up 157000 square kilometres
and is split into 245173 fragments. 90 percent of the forest remains are smaller than 100 hectares
A total of 46 percent of the forests in the Mata Atlã¢ntica lie in these peripheral areas.
Due to the changed microclimate at the forest edges more than 68 million tonnes of carbon are lost in ten years.
This is an enormous loss in relation to the small total area of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest PÃ tz concludes.
The 3. 1 million sqkm of the Brazilian part of the rainforest in the Amazon consists of over 300000 forest fragments.
For the first time the UFZ researchers also calculated how much this border effect would affect the storage of carbon in tropical forests worldwide.
Because the calculations of the UFZ model indicate that ten percent of the forest areas in the tropics worldwide lie at the edges of forests these degradation effects result in an increase of up to 0. 2 billion tonnes of carbon getting
On the one hand it makes sense to require a minimum size of at least around 10000 hectares for forest island areas
On the other hand the peripheral areas and not the interior parts of forests should be used for forestry
Thus its application in agriculture horticulture forestry plants ornamental plants or any other plant with commercial interest would represent a significant environmental and economic saving.
#Creepy crawlers play key role in structure of grasslandswhen asked to describe a forest or a meadow most people would probably begin with the plants the species diversity or the color of the foliage.
The results reflect the long-term ecological impacts of land use changes such as the conversion of forests to agricultural land researchers say.
School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&es) and lead author of the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
and that different ecosystem processes respond in different ways to the management of grasslands said Stephen Wood'11 M. E. Sc. a doctoral student at Columbia University
or forest remember that the tiny animals immediately beneath your feet are likely responsible for much of
The above story is provided based on materials by Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. The original article was written by Kevin Dennehy.
It is used industrially for treating utility poles wood pilings fence posts and lumber or timber for construction.
and forests of the world can also be found living beneath New york city's Central park according to a surprising new study led by Colorado State university and the University of Colorado Boulder.
and the type of trees we see in a tropical forest Fierer said. But that doesn't seem to be true for the microbes living in the soil.
while agricultural rangeland and forests have declined Grunwald said. That change has caused carbon-rich wetlands to increase 140 percent
Land use means how people utilize public and private land such as agriculture forestry or conservation land.
They found higher average annual temperatures correlated with higher soil carbon sequestration specifically in crops mesic upland forest pineland
and land converted from pine forests to urban use. Areas with higher average annual precipitation showed less sequestration in agricultural crops and pine forests.
Among land-use types researchers also found sugarcane in the soils of the Everglades Agricultural area near Lake Okeechobee and wetlands stored the most soil carbon
#Biodiversity does not always improve resistance of forest ecosystems to droughtscientists from INRA in collaboration with WSL (Switzerland)
and European colleagues studied the resistance of forests to drought according to the diversity of tree species. Due to climate change parts of the world will face droughts that will affect forest health.
Scientists from INRA in collaboration with WSL 1 (Switzerland) and European colleagues studied the resistance of forests to drought according to the diversity of tree species. Contrary to
what was accepted commonly by scientists species diversity does not systematically improve tree resistance to drought in forest ecosystems.
The extreme events induced by climate change will have drastic consequences on forest functions and services and may bring about important drought-induced die off events.
It is known however that biodiversity can promote forest ecosystem performance and resistance to insect pests and diseases but whether or not diverse forests are adapted also better to deal with drought stress remains unknown.
To shed more light on the effects of biodiversity on the resistance of European forests to drought scientists from INRA in collaboration with WSL and European colleagues studied 160 forest stands with a variety of tree diversity
levels from monocultures to five species mixtures across Europe (Spain Italy Romania Poland Germany. For every region we compared monocultures to mixed forests (up to 5 tree species)
and looked at their respective capacity to resist to drought explains Damien Bonal who led the research at INRA.
This study shows that mixed species forests are more resistant to drought stress than monocultures in some regions only:
They also show that the beetle outbreaks which occurred from 2000 through 2010 have not directly impacted post-fire recovery of the forests.
Large severe fires are typical in the lodgepole pine forests found throughout the region even without mountain pine beetle outbreaks.
The conventional wisdom is that a forest of dead trees is a tinder box just waiting to burn up says Turner who has studied long the forest landscape of the Mountain West.
Forests attacked by bark beetles --which burrow into the bark of lodgepole pines to mate and incubate their larvae--can seem nothing more than ample kindling for a raging blaze with their dead wood and dry reddish-brown needles.
The burrows the beetles carve under the bark of pines called galleries choke off water and nutrient circulation in the trees.
and wildfire together change the ecological response of the forest to fire? Fortunately for the team among the burned areas studied were pine stands that had not been attacked by beetles.
and how much char covered the forests. Engaging in what Harvey calls post-fire detective work in 2012 the scientific team evaluated fire severity in each study plot
and forest floor the team became covered with ash and soot. We looked like coal miners
and forest stands higher in the landscape burned more severely than those at lower elevation as fires moved uphill building momentum.
No one says beetle-killed forests won't burn says Turner. The data set looks at whether they burn with different severity compared to unattacked forests burning under similar conditions.
The team was interested also in whether beetle outbreaks slowed the recovery of the forests after fires.
Lodgepole pines are adapted to fire containing two types of seed-carrying cones: those that release seeds as soon as they mature
and those that require fire to open blanketing the forest floor with potential new life following a blaze.
The scientists emphasize the results may differ in other forest types or with different lengths of time between beetle outbreaks and fire.
system science at Stanford and a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.
whether climate change played a role in the probability of the 2013 event the team collaborated with Bala Rajaratnam an assistant professor of statistics and of environmental Earth system science and an affiliated faculty member of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.
When combined with landscape mapping data these observations revealed that the Tree Bumblebee was much more likely to be found in built-up areas and to a lesser extent areas with woodland nearby.
The Tree Bumblebee was recorded first in the UK in the New Forest in 2001 and has expanded since its range approximately 600 km northwards through most of England
Forest research network reveals global change effectspermafrost thaw drives forest loss in Canada while drought has killed trees in Panama southern India and Borneo.
Continents apart these changes have all been documented by the Smithsonian-led Center for Tropical forest Science-Forest Global Earth Observatory CTFS-Forestgeo
which released a new report revealing how forests are changing worldwide. With 107 collaborators we've published a major overview of
what 59 forests in 24 countries where we monitor nearly 6 million trees teach us about forest responses to global change said Kristina Anderson-Teixeira first author of the report
Many of the changes occurring in forests worldwide are attributable to human impacts on climate atmospheric chemistry land use
Some of the best information about these global-scale changes comes from CTFS-Forestgeo the only network of standardized forest-monitoring sites that span the globe.
Since the censuses began at the first site on Barro Colorado Island in Panama in 1981 atmospheric carbon dioxide has increased by 16 percent The forest sites in the network have warmed by an average of over 1 degree F (0. 6
The plot network now includes forests from Brazil to northern Canada from Gabon to England and from Papua new guinea to China.
not only how forests are changing but also why. Climate change scenarios predict that most of these sites will face warmer
Forests are changing more rapidly than expected by chance alone and shifts in species composition have been associated with environmental change.
It is incredibly rewarding to work with a team of forest scientists from 78 research institutions around the world including four Smithsonian units Anderson-Teixeira said.
and why forests respond to change and what this means for the climate biodiversity conservation and human well-being said Stuart Davies network director.
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