and the old-growth intact pine forest of the Murmansk Region. The objective is to conserve functional ecological corridors between Finland and Russia.
We know from decades of research that forests are more than a collection of trees they are'living infrastructure'that works 24-hours a day to provide climate protection clean water local wood products and natural areas for people
They grew three types of tomatoes--Bonny Best Florida-47 and Solar Fire during three production seasons over two years in Live oak and Citra.
or aerial live mass that generates a tree specially the canopy that is the upper part of the tree (leafs and branches) and in second term the trunk.
Currently there are samples of a section of the Montes Azules Reservation in Chiapas southeast of the country and of the conservation floor of Mexico city with species of pine and oyamel.
Another important point was confirmed by proving that the leaf's size does influence in the greenery of the trees
rdenas explained that currently the most popular method for measuring trees biomass is by field sampling by the Forest National Commission
#Can cutting trees help fight global warming? More logging, deforestation may better serve climate in some areas,
if trees are left standing in some regions according to a Dartmouth College study that for the first time puts a dollar value on snow's ability to reflect the sun's energy.
when new trees are planted and ends when most of the trees are harvested. Their results suggest that including the value of albedo can shorten optimal forest rotation periods significantly compared to scenarios where only timber
and carbon are considered. For instance in spruce and fir stands very short rotation periods of 25 years become economically optimal
when albedo is considered. The researchers attributed this to the low timber productivity and substantial snowfall in the White Mountain National Forest.
In gallery forests near rivers ring-tailed lemurs regularly sleep high in the canopies of tall trees.
But in spiny forests most of the trees with woody stems are covered in rows of spines making them uncomfortable as well as dangerous sleeping sites
One of the early clues to the cave sleeping by the lemurs was their presence on limestone cliffs adjacent to spiny forest trees
and it was not from the trees she said. We were baffled. But when we began arriving at the study sites earlier
In southwestern Madagascar trees are being harvested for cattle forage construction materials and firewood and the mining of limestone there--used for the production of cement fertilizer
The volcanic ash was distributed by strong winds over large parts of northern and Central europe and we can find them with new technologies as tine ash particles in the sediment deposits of lakes.
Through counting of annual bands in these sediments we could precisely determine the age of this volcanic ash.
Therefore this ash material reflects a distinct time marker in the sediments of the lakes in the Eifel and in Norway.
Furthermore lake sediments are very accurate climate archives especially when they contain seasonal bands similar like tree rings.
It is a diligent piece of work to count and analyse thousands of these thin layers under the microscope to reconstruct climate year-by-year far back in time illustrates Brauer.
The ash of the Katla volcanic eruption thus was deposited at the same time in the Eifel and in Norway.
The sediments of the Eifel maar lake depict the rapid warming 100 years before the volcanic ash
And the inspiration came from an unexpected source--the peel of the pomelo fruit (Citrus maxima.
and epidemiologist Pejman Rohani senior author of the PNAS paper (the first author is Julie Blackwood a former postdoctoral research associate in Rohani's lab who is now at Williams College).
Fruit--pomegranates clementine oranges and cranberries--are terrific holiday dishes because they are pretty festive and best of all easy.
#Barcodes for trees: Researchers identify genetic fingerprints of endangered conifersin the tropics and subtropics many evergreen conifers are endangered.
Biologists at the Ruhr-Universitã¤t Bochum (RUB) have collected the world's largest Podocarpaceae collection.
Together with colleagues from The New york Botanical garden they sequenced characteristic parts of the DNA of these conifers
in order to generate a DNA barcode for each species. With the help of this genetic fingerprint unknown individuals can be assigned to the respective Podocarpaceae species
which are often very similar in appearance. Thus individuals of endangered populations can be identified more easily.
Many Podocarpaceae are difficult or impossible to identifythe distribution ranges of many Podocarpaceae are very small
and often inhabited by only a few scattered individuals--unlike our native European conifer forests that cover large areas says Dr Patrick Knopf from the RUB Department of Evolution and Biodiversity of Plants.
There are only about ten individuals left of one species native to Fiji. In order to protect the few rare representatives of the endangered species it is necessary to identify the species first.
In case of Podocarpaceae it is difficult or even impossible to identify them only by their appearance explains the RUB biologist Dr Christian Schulz.
Propagating and exchanging of endangered speciesthe researchers from Bochum collected 320 individuals from 145 Podocarpaceae species on field trips to South america Southeast asia Australia New caledonia and Fiji.
In addition they created a living Podocarpaceae collection in the Botanic Garden of the Ruhr-Universitã¤t
Relevance in the timber industry and cancer researchpodocarpaceae constitute the second-largest conifer family. They grow mainly in mountainous regions in the Southern hemisphere.
The Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN) currently includes 27 Podocarpaceae species. In total 86 species are endangered.
#Lowering stand density reduces mortality of ponderosa pine standsas trees grow larger in even-aged stands competition develops among them.
Competition weakens trees as they contend for soil moisture nutrients and sunlight. Competition also increases trees'risk to bark beetles and diseases and subsequently leads to a buildup of dead fuels.
A recent study led by Dr. Jianwei Zhang research forester at the U s. Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station considered
if the relationship between density and mortality varies with site quality as ponderosa pine stands developed.
and plantations from 1944 to 1988 and 59 additional ponderosa pine plots measured by the Forest Service's Forest Inventory
By establishing the self-thinning boundary lines from the size-density trajectories the onset of mortality risk can be determined for ponderosa pine stands.
and enhances its economic value by increasing growth of residual trees. Specifically stand basal area which is the cross sectional area of all trees in a stand measured at breast height is affected not by thinning ponderosa pine stands to half the normal basal area of a specific site quality.
If the stand has experienced high mortality caused by bark beetles it can be thinned more heavily without sacrificing timber biomass or volume increment and plant diversity.
and tree density control are the most effective and efficient ways to reduce fuel buildup.
Under Mediterranean climatic conditions shrubs reduce overstory tree growth and keep tree crowns in contact with the shrub canopy.
In turn this growing fuel ladder can carry a ground fire into the crowns of the overstory trees.
or without understory vegetation by controlling competing vegetation carbon is reallocated into the trees instead of shrubs;
In 2006 shortly after the DOE JGI sequenced the first tree genome Populus trichocarpa it became apparent that it took a village (of other organisms) to raise a poplar tree.
Rhizophagus irregularis is the next in this linage to be released by the DOE JGI it follows the ectomycorrhizal fungal symbiont Laccaria the poplar rust pathogen Melampsora and dozens of bacterial genomes.
which are probably responsible for its large appetite for phosphorus said Francis Martin one of the senior authors on the paper and lead for the Cluster of Excellence Advanced Research on the Biology of Tree and Forest Ecosystems (ARBRE
Geoarchaeological research also confirmed the presence of ancient tree roots within the temple's central void.
while holding on to the branch of a tree within the Lumbini Garden midway between the kingdoms of her husband and parents.
Coningham and his colleagues postulate that the open space in the center of the most ancient timber shrine may have accommodated a tree.
and was recorded by Chinese pilgrims as having a shrine beside a tree. The Maya Devi Temple at Lumbini remains a living shrine;
and other institutes have succeeded in unraveling the whole genome sequence of desert poplar Populus euphratica and the genetic bases underlying poplar to against salt stress.
This work provides new insights for understanding the genetic basis of tree adaptation to salt stress
and facilitating the genetic breeding of cultivated poplars for saline fields. The research results have been published online in Nature Communications.
Trees are the lungs of the earth for that they can fix CO2--the major greenhouse gas--more efficiently.
Forest trees rarely can grow in saline soils but desert poplar is adapted well to extreme desert environments
and is an important species for studying the effects of salt stresses on trees. Notably it maintains higher growth
and photosynthetic rates than other poplar species at high salinity and can survive concentrations of Nacl in nutrient solution up to 450mm.
However the knowledge of the genomic mechanisms of desert poplar under salt stress remains very limited.
Considering the limitation of next-generation sequencing for assembling complex genome and the high heterozygosity of desert poplar researchers used a newly developed fosmid-pooling strategy to sequence
and assemble the genome of this tree species. All the efforts yielded a high-quality genome sequence of desert poplar with high contiguity coverage
and accuracy further demonstrating the feasibility of this fosmid-pooling approach for de novo sequencing and assembly of a complex heterozygous genome.
The genome of desert poplar is very similar to that of the closely related mesophytic congener P. trichocarpa.
They also compared the P. euphratica in response to salt stress with salt-sensitive poplar (P. tomentosa)
The complete genome sequencing of desert poplar revealed the underlying genetic mechanisms of poplar to against salt stress laying a solid foundation for accelerating the genetic breeding of cultivated poplars for saline and desert fields. said Junyi
#Link between allergies, increased risk of blood cancers in womena team of scientists looking into the interplay of the immune system and cancer have found a link between a history of airborne allergies--in particular to plants grass and trees
History of asthma and allergies was taken also including allergies to plants grasses or trees; mold or dust;
The most statistically significant association was seen with allergies to plants grass and trees. Further the study looked at associations between the different subtypes of allergies
and trees was associated significantly with mature B-cell neoplasms one of four major categories of lymphoma.
study in locusts suggestsa team of scientists has shown how the environment shapes learning and memory by training locusts like Pavlov's dog to associate different smells with reward or punishment.
Desert locusts are notorious for their devastating swarms. However they do not always live in swarms--they switch between a lone living'solitary phase'and a swarming'gregarious'phase.
The new research from the Universities of Leicester Sussex and Cambridge examines how locusts associate odours with nutritious or toxic food.
Solitary locusts rely on camouflage to evade predators and they avoid eating toxic plants; but gregarious locusts eat these plants to'impregnate'themselves with toxins to deter predators.
The transformation to gregarious behaviour which happens when solitary locusts are forced together into a crowd is complete within a few hours.
Dr Swidbert Ott from the University of Leicester said: Locusts should consider toxic food'bad
'while they live alone but'good'when they are in a swarm which made us wonder how do swarming locusts learn that'bad is the new good'?
'Such research is important because it provides new insights into how animals can quickly switch between very different life styles that are adapted to different environments.
When we presented solitary locusts with an unfamiliar odour together with toxic food they assigned it an aversive('bad')value.
But if the locust is in a crowd and starting to change towards gregarious it assigns an appetitive('good')value to the same odour.
because being a gregarious locust it should find and eat toxic plants to defend itself against predators.
if a solitary locust has learned already about an odour and then it finds itself in a crowd what would happen to its memories?
We found that locusts cannot do this: they are stuck with the value of their already acquired memories.
However strikingly we found that locusts in this transitional period also cannot form any new aversive memories
We show that this simple selective block of aversion learning enables the locusts to effectively re-train themselves to learn that the same odour that indicated'bad'now indicates'good'.
Desert locusts aggregate into swarms when they run out of food--the crowding is driven by hunger and competition for the last few plants in the desert.
Because newly crowded locusts don't form memories about toxins they ingest all they remember is the pleasant side of
The changes in learning and memory we're proposing don't require the locusts to understand what's happening to them--they just have feed to
The scientists trained the locusts just like Pavlov trained his dog except that the unfamiliar smell replaces the bell in Pavlov's experiments:
or lemon odour at the restrained locust while they spoon-fed it with artificial food.
After training the researchers'asked'the locust: do you prefer vanilla odour or lemon odour.
We walk the locust on a rod that bifurcates into two arms: one arm has lemon odour the other vanilla.
So the locust has to make up its mind: do I go to vanilla or to lemon.
Without training locusts like vanilla more than lemon. But if you pair nutritious food with lemon during the training they will go to lemon.
And if you train solitary locusts with toxic food and vanilla they will also go to lemon.
Simply crowding a locust won't change its mind about the odour being'bad'the authors say:
We first thought this is pretty daft the locust should now like the odour. But even we humans struggle to forget food poisoning
The locusts do not operate in a vacuum they live in the desert. And in the circumstances that they need to reevaluate the'meaning'of an odour it takes only a simple modification of the rules by
'and the locust can retrain itself. So a little brain with simple rules goes a long way
We will utilize its hover capability to take off from small tree-fall gaps in the rainforest
Drone Data Provides New Insightto date data about the forest canopy composed of 390 billion trees is hard to come by.
However the reduction in mortality was similar both for peanuts and for tree nuts--walnuts hazelnuts almonds Brazil nuts cashews macadamias pecans cashews pistachios and pine nuts.
The study is supported by a research grant from the International Tree Nut Council Nutrition Research & Education Foundation and the National institutes of health grants UM1 CA167552 P01 CA87969 R01 HL60712 R01ca124908 P50
Two nitrogen-fixing trees were exceptions: the native Hawaiian tree Acacia koa and the exotic tree Morella faya (from the Canary islands but invading Hawaii today.
These species did much better in later Melinis invasion conditions and Morella faya did particularly well.
By contrast the native Acacia did reasonably well in the experiment but it just does not have as robust a growth rate as Morella.
#Neurons in face recognition center respond differently in autistic brainin what are believed to be the first studies of their kind Cedars-Sinai researchers recording the real-time firing of individual nerve cells in the brain found that a specific type of neuron in a structure called the amygdala
and director of Human Neurophysiology Research at Cedars-Sinai and first author of an article in the Nov 20 issue of the journal Neuron.
Researchers in Cedars-Sinai's Department of Neurosurgery and Department of Neurology with colleagues from the California Institute of technology and Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena listened in
whether the human amygdala contained face-sensitive neurons said Adam Mamelak MD professor of neurosurgery and director of Functional Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai.
The above story is provided based on materials by Cedars-Sinai Medical center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
and Guatemalafor many decades researchers thought the closest relatives of papaya were certain trees from the Andes the so-called highland papayas.
and a small tree with stinging hairs occurring from Mexico to Guatemala and El salvador. The stingy-haired tree in fact is known only from cloud forests in the Sierra de Juarez in Oaxaca southern Mexico.
The three herbaceous species are well known to Mexicans living in the area and Mexican botanists had figured out their correct names some time ago.
A new study in Horttechnology recommends new protocols for using zinc sprays at critical stages on apple trees
Researchers sprayed'Gala'and'Fuji'apple trees in China with zinc sulfate (Znso4) and sugar alcohol zinc separately during four different developmental stages:
The treatments 3 weeks after bloom and 4 weeks before harvest increased average fruit weight of both'Gala'and'Fuji'apples.
Although the apple trees showed no zinc deficiency symptoms and the leaf zinc nutrition was at a low level continuing zinc sprays on these trees was required to increase fruit quality the researchers said.
We found that a single spray of sugar alcohol zinc was equal to or more effective than zinc sulfate at being absorbed by apple fruit tissue
and improving fruit quality for trees grown under field conditions. These experimental results offer new strategies for apple growers.
#Bait research focused on outsmarting destructive beetleuniversity of Alberta researchers are closing in on developing an effective bait to get ahead of the destructive spread of mountain pine beetle
which is now killing not only lodgepole pine forests but also jack pine in Alberta. Nadir Erbilgin associate professor and Canada Research Chair in Forest Entomology in the U of A's Department of Renewable Resources has been investigating pheromones--airborne chemical compounds that trigger a social response among individuals
of the same species--emitted by the pest in North america's lodgepole and jack pine forests.
The mountain pine beetle has killed lodgepole pine forests in the Western United states British columbia the Northwest territories and Alberta and according to other U of A research could spread east to the Maritimes.
Newer to the beetle's list is the jack pine tree and Erbilgin's research focuses on developing a bait that can be used potentially to monitor beetle activity specifically in jack pine forests in Alberta and other provinces.
Traps with high numbers of beetle catches could indicate the levels of beetle population at a particular site.
The eventual goal is to develop a bait for use in a provincial trap tree program in
Trap trees are used to concentrate and contain the local beetle population on certain trees in Alberta.
The infested trees are used then to assess the beetle population level and removed along with the beetles.
The mountain pine beetle is the most damaging forest insect in North america and climate change has allowed the current epidemic to spread from lodgepole pine to jack pine a tree species that was thought to be unsuitable for beetle survival in Alberta.
In fact the beetle has attacked large swaths of jack pine in eastern Alberta close to the Saskatchewan border Erbilgin noted.
Erbilgin and his team which includes associate professor Maya Evenden of the Department of Biological sciences and several U of A graduate students spent the summers of 2011 and 2012 testing the efficiency of a pheromone bait that is showing promise he said.
The bait tested in Grande Prairie lodgepole forests works by attracting the beetles to traps.
Alberta field trials will continue in the summer of 2014 and the hope is to have an effective product developed for use within the next few years.
The U of A team's work is focused on fine-tuning baits currently being used in jack pine forests in an effort to get ahead of beetle infestations.
Right now we don't know how efficient currently available commercial baits will be in catching beetles in jack pine forest as they were developed to catch the beetle in lodgepole pine forests Erbilgin said.
Because the trees differ in their chemistry relating to beetle attraction and colonization differences in beetle responses are to be expected he added.
Pheromones are essential for the mountain pine beetle to be able to spread and thrive so we wanted to explore how we might use that to stop them Erbilgin said.
The chemical compounds play a key role in the insect's ability to find a mate and to overcome tree defences.
The U of A study published recently in New Phytologist investigated the tree chemical compounds that play critical roles in the beetle's pheromone production and attraction in both their established lodgepole pine host and in the newer jack pine host.
The study revealed that the beetles emit the same pheromones from both tree species but researchers found that the females in the jack pine tree emitted more trans-verbenol a pheromone that initiates the beetle aggregation on host trees.
Females lead the first attacks on trees while sending out pheromone signals for more beetles to join the aggregation.
Without this initial chemical signalling the beetles couldn't aggregate on the same tree Erbilgin noted.
Beetle attacks also induce a release of a volatile tree chemical 3-carene. Field tests conducted by Erbilgin
and his team showed that when 3-carene was added to a mixture mimicking the aggregation pheromone beetle capture in traps increased.
Understanding the role of pheromones in beetle invasion also allows for quicker monitoring of the insect's activities in jack pine forests Erbilgin said.
#Rising concerns over tree pests and diseasesnew research has found that the number of pests
and disease outbreaks in trees and forests across the world has been increasing. The review The consequences of Tree Pests and Diseases for Ecosystem Services by scientists from the universities of Southampton Cambridge Oxford and St andrews is published today (15 november) in the journal Science.
The research shows that the experience of widespread death of trees similar to that seen from Dutch elm disease
and with the arrival last year of the new fungal disease of ash--Chalara fraxinea--has not been unique to the UK.
Furthermore there is growing concern that aspects of globalisation--in particular high volumes and new forms of trade--may increase the risk of disease spreading
Trees and forests provide a wide variety of ecosystem*services in addition to timber food and other provisioning services such as carbon sequester
and ongoing management this includes the breeding of resistant trees and development of effective bio-control systems.
Researchers also examined the difficulties of maintaining tree health and considered the consequences of pests
and diseases for the full range of ecosystem services provided by trees. The term pest and disease was used to describe all pathogens
and small-to medium-size insect herbivores that--by causing tree damage and death--disrupt the ecosystem services provided by trees.
This raises difficult questions about who should be responsible for measures to protect tree health.**An ecosystem is a community of living organisms (plants animals
#The ash dieback fungus, Chalara fraxinea, might have a mechanism to define territory and to combat virusesthe fungus
which causes Chalara dieback of ash trees has the potential to defend itself against virus attacks research by British scientists has shown.
If the vc system is switched on'during early infection of ash leaves then the spores (ascospores) responsible for infection might antagonise one other
which could reduce their ash colonizing ability. Alternatively if the vc system is switched off'the germinating spores might cooperate during ash leaf infection leading to a greater spread of the fungus.
Later as larger lesions form in ash tissues the vc system might define the'territory'defended by each pathogen individual.
Commenting on their results Professor Brasier said: This research is still at a preliminary stage.
Indeed products from livestock are the country's second largest export after coffee. However due to a number of diseases affecting domestic animals this resource is not reaching its full potential.
or losses in tree cover in both managed and unmanaged forests; and the effects of efforts to halt
During particularly severe droughts trees reach a limit in their ability to access and use soil moisture.
#Researchers warn against high emissions from oil palm expansion in Brazilexpanding millions of hectares of Brazilian land to produce palm oil for food
unless the oil palm plantations are confined strictly to previously deforested land and not allowed to spill over into conservation
Oil palm has become an increasingly attractive crop for the production of biodiesel as it has a much higher yield than other crops requires barely any new technology to produce
The Brazilian government has approved recently a bill to expand 4. 3 million hectares of previously deforested land to oil palm plantations
The leaves came from trees on an outcrop above the dam. Because sediment quickly covered the leaf layer the leaves that date from before the dam remain intact.
and the trees that grow and grew there over the water. The leaves found in the stream bank preserve a snapshot of the trees growing directly above before European settlement
which Elliott then compared to the modern forest makeup. The researchers found that the precontact forest was overwhelmingly American beech red oak
and sweet birch similar to modern red oak/beech forests today. But box elder and another maple dominate the current forest that grows above the stream.
It was intriguing to see samples from American chestnut which isn't around anymore because of the chestnut blight said Elliott.
On the whole though the species are around today just in different proportions and places. The researchers think that reconstructing landscapes more along the lines of those that actually existed before the 1700s might be a more successful approach to restoration.
Establishment of precolonial-like habitats might also decrease the amounts of nutrients from the legacy sediments that currently flow into the Chesapeake watershed
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