Leann Birch Distinguished Professor of Human Development and professor of nutritional sciences and director of the Center for Childhood Obesity Research Penn State;
#Plant molecular biologist are getting to the root of the matterworking to identify key genes in the root development of poplar trees three Michigan Technological University scientists have come up with a new model for how genes interact
They also identified a network of genes that cause poplar roots to grow well in low-nitrogen soil making them ideal candidates for biofuel tree plantations on marginal lands.
They turned to the poplar for their studies because it is a major biofuel crop. There are tens of thousands of genes in the poplar genome.
The challenge--and it was a big one--was how to determine which genes are doing
In their laboratory at Michigan Tech Busov and Yordanov planted poplar seedlings under normal nitrogen levels.
Now that the scientists understand the poplar's genetic engine they can work to develop new varieties of plants that can thrive on marginal lands.
We want to grow poplars that are even more efficient in a low-nitrogen environment says Yordanov.
'These entrepreneurs buy unregulated access to land for oil palm and clear it by burning seemingly unrestrained by government.
They bring in their own labour to clear the land for oil palm regardless of the land's formal government status and in the absence of any permits to do so.
About half of the fire'hot spots'in Riau province are on land with legal permits for large-scale operations (industrial timber oil palm and logging.
#Flipping fish adapt to land livingresearchers have found that the amphibious mangrove rivulus performs higher force jumps on land than some other fishes that end up on land.
This new study shows that unlike the largemouth bass which makes very few excursions on land the mangrove rivulus
and amphibious mangrove rivulus jumping off a force plate when startled with the end of a stick
The mangrove rivulus on the other hand does a tail flip whereby it flips its head over its body towards the tail end to jump away from a stimulus. The researchers found striking differences in these fish's jumping forces:
the mangrove rivulus generates the greatest forces in the antero-posterior (front-back) and medio-lateral (side-to-side) dimensions
Mangrove rivulus which can live out of the water for extended periods of time (days or weeks as long as the conditions are moist) uses its specialised jumping technique
The method in the study is a bit like telling a tree's age by its rings but instead of counting rings Cerling Uno and colleagues measured carbon-14 levels at various points along the lengths of elephants'and hippos'tusks
because oceans and trees absorb carbon dioxide--including carbon-14--from the atmosphere. So the method won't work for tusks
whether animals ate diets based on tree and shrub leaves and fruits or upon grasses and grazing animals.
For example we still have a small amount of small-leaved lime in Denmark which has held on since the warm period during the Bronze age i e. about 3000 years.
However such expansion would take a long time as lime is not a particularly fast-growing tree
The climate will change considerably in the course of a single tree generation so we should not assume that the forest we're looking at in a given place is suitable for the climate.
Shown here is a Norway maple a highly invasive tree species in North america that may nevertheless still take many decades to spread across even small landscapes.
Just think of a tree generation. Our entire culture is based on something that was if not in complete equilibrium then at least relatively predictable.
Take cherry laurel for example which we see in many gardens in Denmark. It's ready to spread throughout the Danish countryside.
The cherry laurel is an evergreen and if it disperses on the forest floor it may create too much shade for the existing flora on the forest floor to survive.
Cherry laurel is another example of a species that has returned not yet to Northern europe since the last Ice age but
Help is now underway in the form of a tree-ring record reflecting ENSO activity over the past seven centuries.
Tree-rings have been shown to be very good proxies for temperature and rainfall measurements. An international team of scientists spearheaded by Jinbao Li
and Shang-Ping Xie while working at the International Pacific Research center University of Hawaii at Manoa has compiled 2222 tree-ring chronologies of the past seven centuries from both the tropics and mid-latitudes in both
The inclusion of tropical tree-ring records enabled the team to generate an archive of ENSO activity of unprecedented accuracy as attested by the close correspondence with records from equatorial Pacific corals and with an independent Northern hemisphere
low-elevation sitespredicted increases in temperature and drought in the coming century may make it more difficult for conifers such as ponderosa pine to regenerate after major forest fires on dry low-elevation sites in some cases leading to conversion
Researchers from Oregon State university concluded that moisture stress is a key limitation for conifer regeneration following stand-replacing wildfire
which prior to a 2002 fire was mostly ponderosa pine with some Douglas-fir and other tree species. The research area was logged not salvage
or replanted following the severe stand-replacing fire. A decade after this fire there was almost no tree regeneration at lower drier sites said Erich Dodson a researcher with the OSU Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society.
There was some regeneration at higher sites with more moisture. But at the low elevations it will be a long time before a forest comes back
While mature trees can use their roots to tap water deeper in the soil competition with dense understory vegetation can make it difficult for seedlings to survive.
Openings in ponderosa pine forests created by wildfire have persisted for more than a century on harsh south-facing slopes in Colorado the researchers noted in their report.
If trees do fail to regenerate it could further reduce ecosystem carbon storage and amplify the greenhouse effect the study said.
and increase tree survival after wildfire as well as provide a seed source for future trees Dodson said.
Higher-elevation mixed conifer forests in less moisture-limited sites may be able to recover from stand-replacing wildfire without treatment the researchers said.
#Ailanthus trees status as invasive species offers lesson in human interactionan exotic tree species that changed from prized possession to forest management nightmare serves as a lesson in the unpredictability of nonnative species
There are other invasive tree species in Pennsylvania but the ailanthus by far has been here longer and does more damage than any other invasive tree said Matthew Kasson who received his doctorate in plant pathology and environmental microbiology from Penn State.
It's the number one cause of native regeneration failure in clearcuts in Pennsylvania. Kasson who is a postdoctoral researcher in plant pathology physiology
and weed science at Virginia Tech said that William Hamilton a pioneer botanist who corresponded with William Bartram
and Thomas Jefferson imported the first ailanthus altissima--Tree-of-heaven--a tree native to China from England sometime between 1784 and 1785 and cultivated the tree on his estate the Woodlands in Philadelphia.
The deciduous tree which grows rapidly often to a height of 50 feet has become one of the biggest forest management problems especially since the 1980s according to the researchers.
Kasson and colleagues report in a recent issue of the Northeastern Naturalist thatailanthus can invade quickly in areas where large continuous stands of trees are cut down--clearcuts
The spread of ailanthus in Pennsylvania occurred in spurts that seem to be connected with stages of human development particularly during cross-state transportation projects Kasson said.
While the tree was isolated initially to the properties of a few botanists and wealthy plant collectors commercialization of ailanthus after 1820 coupled with railroad construction projects that connected the eastern and western parts of the state in the mid-1800s intensified its spread according to Kasson who worked with Matthew Davis lab
assistant and Donald Davis professor of plant pathology both of Penn State. In the 1980s widespread gypsy moth infestation in Pennsylvania led to the death or near death of large stands of oak trees in the state forests especially in south-central Pennsylvania.
Crews that cut down the trees built roads to reach the sites which became avenues for the spread of ailanthus.
From 1989 to 2004 the number of Ailanthus trees on inventory plots increased from 76 million to 135 million.
In parts of the state forests there were no roads in areas associated with the gypsy moth devastation said Kasson.
or two older female ailanthus trees near areas where foresters removed trees following the gypsy moth infestation
but also discovered that most of the ailanthus trees started to grow shortly after the clearing operation.
The older seed-producing trees were often found upwind from the sites of the recent ailanthus growth.
Kasson said this indicates that following the clearcut ailanthus grew faster than competing species and quickly dominated these forests.
Previous research may have underestimated also how long ailanthus can live according to Kasson. While prior studies estimated that ailanthus's lifespan was between 50 to 75 years the tree routinely lives longer than 100 years.
The researchers conducted tree-ring studies of ailanthus in all the counties where the tree grows in Pennsylvania as well as several surrounding states.
The researchers used these studies along with historic surveys and reports on plant species in the state to determine age and growth patterns.
Ailanthus which is also calledchinese sumac or stinking sumac grows in 60 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties according to the researchers--nine more counties than reported in previous studies.
The research also suggests that the incidence of ailanthus in Pennsylvania's northern-tier counties where the tree has been historically absent will likely increase like previous ailanthus expansions in southern parts of the state.
The new species was collected in a wide river valley near mountain mixed forests dominated by various conifer trees bushes and rhododendron.
#Urban trees remove fine particulate air pollution, save livesin the first effort to estimate the overall impact of a city's urban forest on concentrations of fine particulate pollution (particulate matter less than 2. 5 microns
or PM2. 5) a U s. Forest Service and Davey Institute study found that urban trees
In New york city trees save an average of eight lives every year. Fine particulate air pollution has serious health effects including premature mortality pulmonary inflammation accelerated atherosclerosis and altered cardiac functions.
and Robert Hoehn of the U s. Forest Service and Satoshi Hirabayashi and Allison Bodine of the Davey Institute in Syracuse N y. estimated how much fine particulate matter is removed by trees in 10 cities their impact on PM2
More than 80 percent of Americans live in urban areas containing over 100 million acres of trees and forests said Michael T. Rains Director of the Forest Service's Northern Research Station
Overall the greatest effect of trees on reducing health impacts of PM2. 5 occurred in New york due to its relatively large human population and the trees'moderately high removal rate and reduction in pollution concentration.
The greatest overall removal by trees was in Atlanta due to its relatively high percent tree cover and PM2. 5 concentrations.
Trees can make cities healthier Nowak said. While we need more research to generate better estimates this study suggests that trees are an effective tool in reducing air pollution
and creating healthier urban environments. The removal of PM2. 5 by urban trees is substantially lower than for larger particulate matter (particulate matter less than 10 microns--PM10)
but the health implications and values are much higher. The total amount of PM2. 5 removed annually by trees varied from 4. 7 metric tons in Syracuse to 64.5 metric tons in Atlanta with annual values varying from $1. 1 million in Syracuse to $60
. 1 million in New york city. Most of these values were dominated by the effects of reducing human mortality;
. i-Tree a suite of tools developed by the Forest Service and Davey Institute was used to calculate PM2. 5 removal and associated change in concentrations in the study citiesstory Source:
and also appears to attack the protecting wax on tree leaves and needles. Bonn University scientists have discovered now a responsible mechanism:
Bonn University scientists have shown now that salt deposits on leaves may decrease the drought tolerance of trees thereby contributing to forest decline.
Our study reveals that so-called wax degradation on pine needles may develop from deposited particulate matter says Dr. JÃ rgen Burkhardt from the Institute of Crop science and Resource Conservation.
The deposition of hygroscopic salts is capable of decreasing the drought tolerance of trees co-author Shyam Pariyar says.
Accelerated dehydration of needles treated with salt solutionsthe scientists sprayed salt solutions on Scots pine needles
Therefore polluted air containing large amounts of particulate matter may directly reduce the drought tolerance of trees.
Since it's mostly local residents who chop down the trees for firewood or to build homes enlisting locals has been identified as the best way to increase forest cover.
#Black locust tree shows promise for biomass potentialresearchers from the Energy Biosciences Institute at the University of Illinois evaluating the biomass potential of woody crops are taking a closer look at the black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) which showed a higher yield
Robinia pseudoacacia is showing great potential as a biomass crop for Midwestern energy production out-yielding the next closest species by nearly threefold Kling said.
but black locust was the fastest out of the gate. We will pursue other crops as well for a number of years
Black locust is effective at colonizing an area because it freely branches like that Kling said.
which is comparable to woody crops such as the willow. After that first coppicing in February 2012 and then after last year's very early spring the black locust was growing quite rapidly.
It was already a foot tall when we had that freeze in the middle of April which froze them back to the ground.
This spring a preliminary check on the black locust crops which included harvesting 3 plants from the edge of the field produced a yield of 12 to 13 mega grams per hectare (Mg ha-1)
This rapid growth is distinguished what the black locust from other woody plants in the study. We are now looking at harvesting every 2 years rather than every 3 to 5 years as we first assumed Kling explained.
Based on these encouraging findings Kling said two new experiments were started this spring through the EBI both looking at different germplasm for black locust crops.
For example in Hungary with appropriate selection researchers were able to improve yield by approximately 25 percent compared to unimproved black locust.
Seeds were taken also from the site of a remediated quarry area in Vermillion County where they found native black locust growing.
Black locust could be cultivated along some of that area in large acreage. This would be well-suited to smaller producers who want to generate some of their own fuel he said.
and there are a lot of farmers who have riparian areas that could potentially grow black locust as a minor crop in central Illinois we're not going to see 100-acre lots of black locust growing though.
Woody biomass which includes trees grown on plantations managed natural forests and logging waste makes up about 75 percent of global biofuel production.
A great deal of pine forest in the habitat of the moose has the same effect. These are the results of new research into how deer keds are spreading in Southeast Norway.
Madslien points to a clear positive connection between the amount of pine forest in the habitat of the moose and the infestation intensity of deer keds in the coats of the moose.
#Whitebark pine trees: Is their future at risk? There's trouble ahead for the whitebark pine a mountain tree that's integral to wildlife and water resources in the western United states and Canada.
Over the last decade some populations of whitebark pines have declined by more than 90 percent. But these declines may be just the beginning.
New research results supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and published today in the Journal of Ecology suggest that as pine stands are fragmented increasingly by widespread tree death surviving trees may be hindered in their ability to produce their usually abundant seeds.
With fewer seeds you get less regeneration says ecologist Joshua Rapp affiliated with NSF's Harvard Forest Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) site
Whitebark pine populations vary between producing a high number of seed cones some years and a low number of seed cones other years.
Each year pollen from male cones is carried on the air to fertilize female seed cones perched atop nearby trees.
But as more and more whitebark pines die every year becomes a low-cone year. In isolated pockets of trees the gene pool is diminished also meaning the seeds produced may be less viable over time.
For decades researchers have struggled to understand why many different organisms--trees fish corals insects--from various habitats reproduce synchronously
and at certain intervals says Saran Twombly program director in NSF's Division of Environmental Biology which funded the research.
By combining field data on seed and pollen production for whitebark pines with models that simulate mature cone production this study helps to answer that question for these pines.
They inspected branches from seven whitebark pine sites in western Montana counting the scars left by pollen cones and seed cones.
Whitebark pine seeds are an essential food source for many animals in mountain habitats. The Clark's nutcracker a mountain bird can store up to 100000 seeds in underground caches each year.
In the past low years for whitebark pine cones have led to six times more conflicts between grizzlies and humans as hungry bears look for food in campgrounds says Crone.
Now concerns about viability of whitebark pine populations are one of the main reasons grizzly bears in Yellowstone national park are listed still as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Birds squirrels and bears are not the only species that depend on whitebark pine. Vast stands of whitebark pine help to maintain the mountain snowpacks that provide water to more than 30 million people in 16 U s. states each year.
Whitebark pines are often the only trees at the highest elevations. Their branches retain snow as it blows across gusty mountaintops.
Their shade moderates snow-melt in the spring keeping flows down the mountain in check. A small percentage of whitebark pine trees have outlived the ongoing destruction by pests and disease.
These trees are the next area of focus for Crone's team. We want to find out whether the surviving trees are still producing cones Crone says.
They represent the future of whitebark pines. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by National Science Foundation.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e
#Pollinators easily enhanced by flowering agri-environment schemesagri-environment schemes aimed to promote biodiversity on farmland have positive effects on wild bees hoverflies and butterflies.
Effects on diversity and abundance were strongest when agri-environment schemes prescribed sowing wild-flowers the more flowering species the better.
For underwater structures lime and volcanic ash were mixed to form mortar and this mortar and volcanic tuff were packed into wooden forms.
--and reacted with the ash to cement the whole mixture together. Pozzuoli Bay defines the northwestern region of the Bay of Naples.
Descriptions of volcanic ash have survived from ancient times. First Vitruvius an engineer for the Emperor Augustus and later Pliny the Elder recorded that the best maritime concrete was made with ash from volcanic regions of the Gulf of Naples (Pliny died in the eruption of Mt vesuvius that buried Pompeii
) especially from sites near today's seaside town of Pozzuoli. Ash with similar mineral characteristics called pozzolan is found in many parts of the world.
Using beamlines 5. 3. 2. 1 5. 3. 2. 2 12.2.2 and 12.3.2 at Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light source (ALS)
#White-tailed deer and the science of yellow snownew research from wildlife ecologists at Michigan Technological University indicates that white-tailed deer may be making the soil in their preferred winter homes unfit to grow the very trees that protect them there.
leave among stands of eastern hemlock which are among their favorite wintering grounds in the harsh snowy climate of northern Michigan.
They compared eastern hemlock stands where deer congregated to stands where deer were fenced out and found a strong relationship between the amount of soil nitrogen from the deer's waste products
Altering the nitrogen availability in a hemlock stand may affect its ability to continue functioning as a deeryard by changing the types of plants that grow there said Murray first author on the journal article titled Broadening the ecological context of ungulate-ecosystem interactions:
For example he said high inputs of nitrogen may hasten the transition of hemlock stands to hardwood species that provide scant winter cover.
During cold northern winters deer seek out stands of evergreens with dense crowns such as eastern hemlock northern white cedar and balsam fir.
Such stands of trees are known as deeryards. They are thought to provide refuge from deep snow
and plants in survivng hemlock stands we can identify sustainable management strategies for this critical resource.
and wine in the middle East and Mediterranean) as well as compounds deriving from pine tree resin. Herbal additives to the wine were identified also including rosemary basil and/or thyme
#A grassy trend in human ancestors dietsmost apes eat leaves and fruits from trees and shrubs.
C3 plants include trees bushes and shrubs and their leaves and fruits; most vegetables; cool-season grasses and grains such as timothy alfalfa wheat oats barley and rice;
and rhinos that browsed on C3 leaves it would appear they ate C3 trees-shrubs.
while human ancestors ate more grasses and other apes stuck with trees and shrubs two extinct Kenyan baboons represent the only primate genus that ate primarily grasses and perhaps sedges throughout its history.
#Threatened frogs palmed off as forests disappearoil palm plantations in Malaysia are causing threatened forest frogs to disappear paving the way for common species to move in on their turf scientists have revealed.
Scientists travelled to Peninsular Malaysia where they spent two years studying communities of frog species in four oil palm plantations and two areas of adjacent forest.
Instead of reducing the number of species oil palm affects amphibian communities by replacing habitat suitable for threatened species with habitat used by amphibian species that are not important for conservation.
Existing practices in managing oil palm are not accommodating the highly threatened forest frog species in Malaysia
The planting of oil palm plantations leads to the loss of natural forests and peat lands
if simple modifications to agricultural practices may bring some of the forest species back into areas planted with oil palm
The technique developed by Dr. Annemie Van der Linden and her laboratory at the University of Antwerp in Belgium will be one of the first published in Jove Behavior a new section of the video journal that focuses on observational and experimental techniques that seek to understand human and animal
By utilizing a high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging apparatus (fmri) Dr. Van der Linden and her colleagues can image the brains of live birds in a noninvasive environment.
and to a lesser extent on mice Dr. Van der Linden explains. Thus far songbird brains have been studied using electrophysiological and histological techniques.
The Van der Linden laboratory hopes to use this technique to conduct experiments that be done with humans.
and reproduce behavioral experiments such as bird fmri techniques as described in Dr. Van der Linden's article which are both novel and technically complex.
Proud to be included in this significant new section Dr. Van der Linden says MRI imaging techniques should in the near future lead to major conceptual advances in the study of how the brain changes behavior
There are many varieties of the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao L) . but the green podded Costa rican Matina or Amelonado variety is the most popular because of its high yield and pleasant flavor.
Cacao trees are grown throughout the humid tropics in more than 50 countries and cacao beans harvested from the plants'pods are used to produce chocolate as well as in the confectionary and cosmetic industries.
#Effects of interannual climate variability on tropical tree cover: Satellite data reveal how tropical ecosystems may respond to climate extremestree cover in the tropics will likely change in surprising ways as climate change increases the frequency of extreme rainfall events according to a study by scientists from Wageningen University published today in Nature Climate Change.
The study shows that increasing year-to year variability in rainfall is associated to lower tree cover in the moist tropical forests worldwide
but it can open windows of opportunity for tree expansion in some tropical drylands. Understanding how ecosystems respond to climate variability is a priority in a fast changing globe says Marten Scheffer who leads the research program on tipping points.
On one hand severe drought can produce massive tree mortality but there is also evidence of episodic tree recruitment during extreme rainy years says Milena Holmgren leading author of the study and a specialist on plant ecology.
Satellite datathe authors used satellite data to look at large scale patterns of tree cover across the tropics of Africa Australia and South america.
They show that increasing rainfall variability is associated to lower tree cover in the moist tropical forests of all continents.
In the dry tropics however the effects of higher year-to year variability in rainfall depend on the specific continent.
Higher overall inter-annual variation in rainfall has positive (South america) negative (Australia) or neutral effects (Africa) on tree cover in dry-lands.
and dry extreme events as well as on the opportunities trees have to grow during rainy events says Milena Holmgren.
and observations in Australia that rainy years can be essential for tree recruitment in drylands.
During extreme rainy years there is massive tree germination and if these young seedlings grow fast enough to escape from herbivores then woodlands can expand.
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