One serving of fruit or vegetables is approximately the size that could fit in your palm or half a cup.
New research from the NEEM ice core drilling project in Greenland shows that the period was warmer than previously thought.
The new results from the NEEM ice core drilling project in northwest Greenland led by the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen show that the climate in Greenland was around 8 degrees C warmer than today during the last interglacial
which indicates that the contribution from the Greenland ice sheet was less than half the total sea-level rise during that period says Dorthe Dahl-Jensen Professor at the Niels Bohr Institute University of Copenhagen and leader of the NEEM-project.
or NEEM led by the Niels Bohr Institute is an international project with participants from 14 countries.
This gives thousands of annual ice layers that like tree rings can tell us about variations in past climate from year to year.
We were shocked completely by the warm surface temperatures at the NEEM camp in July 2012 says Professor Dorthe Dahl-Jensen.
Howlers are arboreal primates that is to say they spend their wholes lives in the trees said Dr Jacob Dunn from Cambridge's Department of Biological Anthropology who carried out the research.
and can be filled with toxins--a natural defence mechanism in most trees and plants--so the monkeys are forced actually to spend more time seeking out the right foliage to eat such as new shoots
and when turning to foliage for food--as they are forced increasingly to do--they have to be highly selective in the leaves they consume visiting lots of different trees.
and planting fruit trees--particularly those species such as figs that can produce fruit during periods of general fruit scarcity--for the conservation of howler monkeys said Dr Jurgi Cristã bal-Azkarate also from Cambridge who led the research
This fact determines the dispersion and germination of acorns and therefore the regeneration of forests of oaks.
The Haedo de Montejo (Madrid) is preserved a well mixed forest of oak and beech. This is the place where researchers at the School of Forestry from the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid have carried out a research on scattering patterns of acorns for voles
The acorns are produced the fruits by oaks holm oaks and cork oaks that perpetuate their species move
and colonize new places. They are autumnal fruits highly valued by wildlife because of its large size its abundance and its high calorie lipid and carbohydrate.
when they are still growing in the tree. These eggs hatch small larvae in worms shaped
However many acorns are forgotten in hiding places allowing them a better germination and consequently new trees.
and achieving so a dispersal distance up to hundreds meters with respect to its mother tree and therefore contributing to better movement of genes and a successful regeneration of these trees.
But what do voles do attacked with the acorns by beetle larvae? There is not just an answer
and failed to thrive in a new tree. However those acorns in which the larva was still inside the fruit were moved
The researchers found an uptick in growth in higher elevations of the region over the 13-year period with an almost eight-percent increase in live-tree biomass a measure of tree growth.
while shore pine declined by almost five percent. As forest managers consider climate impacts like these in the management of their forests scientists including Barrett
Trees grown diagonally produce five times more biofuelwillow trees cultivated for'green energy'can yield up to five times more biofuel
and in plantations around the UK but scientists were previously unable to explain why some willows produced more biofuel than others.
and is activated in some trees when they sense they are at an angle such as where they are blown sideways in windy conditions.
The effect creates an excess of strengthening sugar molecules in the willows'stems which attempt to straighten the plant upwards.
when the trees are harvested in a process that currently needs to be more efficient before it can rival the production of fossil fuels.
Willow is cultivated widely across the UK destined to become biofuels for motor vehicles heating systems and industry.
The researchers say that in the future all willow crops could be bred for this genetic trait making them a more productive and greener energy source.
We've known for some time that environmental stresses can cause trees to naturally develop a slightly modified'reaction wood
and this could well be the key to unlocking the future for sustainable bioenergy from willow.#
#The researchers conducted a trial in controlled laboratory conditions on a rooftop in central London at the Gro-dome facility at Imperial's South Kensington Campus. They cultivated some willows at an angle of 45 degrees
The team then looked for the same effect with willows growing in natural conditions on Orkney Island off the northernmost coast of Scotland where winds are regularly so strong that the trees are bent constantly over at severe angles.
Their measurements confirmed that the willows here could release five times more sugar than identical trees grown in more sheltered conditions at Rothamsted Research in the south of the UK.
because they show that some willows respond more to environmental stresses such as strong winds by changing the composition of their wood in ways that are useful to us.
because it means we could improve willow by selecting these types from the huge diversity in our collections#.
Coupled with work at Rothamsted Research where the National Willow Collection is held the new results will help scientists to grow biofuel crops in climatically challenging conditions where the options for growing food crops are limited
About Willow Treestraditionally grown for wicker furniture and baskets and an ancient medicinal plant whose chemical contents were the precursors to Aspirin willows are seen now as important crops for energy and the environment.
Willow requires less than a tenth of the fertiliser used for most cereal crops and its shoots re-grow quickly after they are harvested.
Environmental groups also say that willow plantations are also attractive to a variety of wildlife making a positive impact on local biodiversity.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Imperial College London. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
The changes suggest dieback of branches and tree falls especially among the older larger more vulnerable canopy trees that blanket the forest.
and tree die offs following severe droughts. Until now there had been based no satellite assessment of the multi-year impacts of these droughts across all of Amazonia.
which subsequently damaged the Amazonian trees. Saatchi said such megadroughts can have long-lasting effects on rainforest ecosystems.
or it is less rough due to damage to or the death of canopy trees. Results of the study were published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The composition of the region's forests is expected to change as rising temperatures drive habitats for many tree species northward.
Many iconic tree species such as paper birch quaking aspen balsam fir and black spruce are projected to shift out of the United states into Canada.
and a light detection and ranging (Lidar) system was used to calculate tree height by firing millions of laser pulses down to the ground
The result was a set of tree height maps from which biomass maps were generated. The researchers selected the village of Justicia as a model for calculating how reserves of fuelwood could be reduced under different consumption scenarios.
an oak-hickory forest in eastern Missouri; and a tropical forest on the Big Island of Hawai'i. The hammock forest a mix of live oak cabbage palm sweet gum
and pignut hickory is being invaded by the flax lily (Dianella ensifolia). Native to Africa and Asia the lily forms dense mats on the forest floor.
Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) a mid-story shrub introduced from East asia as an ornamental and to provide bird habitat is the black hat in the oak-hickory forests.
The fire tree (Morella faya) a canopy tree from Macaronesia that boosts nitrogen levels in the soil making it inhospitable to native species
and more suitable for other invasives is the troublemaker in the Hawaiian forest. Invasives don't just sweep the boardwe counted the number of species per unit area in plots that varied in size from one meter square to 500 meters square--a quarter the size of a football field--on either side of the invasion front
What it says to me is that by continuing to throw money into biofuels we're barking up the wrong tree Geyer explains.
The work thus has important implications for predicting plant responses to changing climate essential for plants such as fruit trees which are highly susceptible to the vagaries of climate and weather.
because the trees bloomed very early in response to record-breaking warmth only to be hit by subsequent frost.
because the trees bloomed very early in response to record-breaking warmth only to be hit by subsequent frost.
#Tree and human health may be linkedevidence is increasing from multiple scientific fields that exposure to the natural environment can improve human health.
In a new study by the U s. Forest Service the presence of trees was associated with human health.
For Geoffrey Donovan a research forester at the Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station and his colleagues the loss of 100 million trees in the eastern and midwestern United states was unprecedented an opportunity to study the impact
In an analysis of 18 years of data from 1296 counties in 15 states researchers found that Americans living in areas infested by the emerald ash borer a beetle that kills ash trees suffered from an additional
When emerald ash borer comes into a community city streets lined with ash trees become treeless.
The data came from counties in states with at least one confirmed case of the emerald ash borer in 2010.
or education and not the loss of trees said Donovan. But we saw the same pattern repeated over and over in counties with very different demographic makeups.
Although the study shows the association between loss of trees and human mortality from cardiovascular and lower respiratory disease it did not prove a causal link.
The emerald ash borer was discovered first near Detroit Michigan in 2002. The borer attacks all 22 species of North american ash
and kills virtually all of the trees it infests. The study was conducted in collaboration with David Butry with the National Institute of Standards and Technology;
Yvonne Michael with Drexel University; and Jeffrey Prestemon Andrew Liebhold Demetrios Gatziolis and Megan Mao with the Forest Service's Southern Northern and Pacific Northwest Research Stations.
and greenhouse gas impacts of different crops including corn poplar alfalfa and old field vegetation.
The team concludes that the rapid changes observed by satellites over the last 20 years at Pine Island
Their work centred on Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers which drain ice from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet into Pine Island Bay.
Lead author Dr Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand from BAS says As snow and ice builds up on the vast Antarctic Ice Sheet the ice flows from the centre of the continent through glaciers towards the sea where it often forms floating ice shelves and eventually breaks off as icebergs.
and show that since 1992 the Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers have experienced significant thinning (melting) flow acceleration
and rapid landward retreat of their grounding lines with that of Pine Island Glacier having retreated up to 25 km.
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.
The unexpected disturbance pattern showed a long slow decline of tree health over years followed by slow regrowth.
and near Mount Rainier where the insect outbreak lasted ten years from its onset in 1994 till the insects killed all the trees
The first is a classic mountain pine beetle outbreak. One near the Three Sisters volcanoes in Oregon started in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
and Mount Rainier is the western spruce budworm an insect that moves into an area and eats the needles off the trees.
Losing its green growth doesn't necessarily kill the tree but it does put it under a lot of stress.
If budworms return in following years trees will ultimately succumb to the onslaught and die.
and look at all the dead trees and we realize that we're actually starting to see something that we had never been able to see before from space.
and coffee and to eat chocolate whenever the opportunity arises. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by BMJ-British Medical Journal.
#Pine beetle outbreak buffers watersheds from nitrate pollutiona research team involving several scientists from the University of Colorado Boulder has found an unexpected silver lining in the devastating pine beetle outbreaks ravaging the West:
According to CU-Boulder team member Professor William Lewis the new study shows that smaller trees
and other vegetation that survive pine beetle invasions along waterways increase their uptake of nitrate a common disturbance-related pollutant.
While logging or damaging storms can drive stream nitrate concentrations up by 400 percent for multiple years the team found no significant increase in the nitrate concentrations following extensive pine beetle tree mortality
They leave behind smaller trees and other understory vegetation which compensate for the loss of larger pine trees by taking up additional nitrate from the system.
Beetle-kill conditions are a good benchmark for the protection of sub-canopy vegetation to preserve water quality during forest management activities.
But this study shows just how important the survival of smaller trees and understory vegetation can be to stream water quality.
In waterways adjacent to healthy pine forests concentrations of nitrate is generally far lower than in rivers on the plains in the West like the South platte said Lewis. Nitrate pollution is caused by agricultural runoff from populated areas and by permitted
In Colorado many watersheds have lost 80 to 90 percent of their tree canopy as a result of the beetle epidemic said Lewis also a faculty member in CU-Boulder's ecology and evolutionary biology department.
whether the loss of the trees was reducing water quality in the streams. We knew that forestry
as a result of the pine beetle outbreak so we decided to pool our university and federal agency resources in order to come up with an answer.
This study shows that at least in some areas it is possible to remove a large part of the tree biomass from a watershed with a very minimal effect on the stream ecosystem he said.
and growth since small trees no longer have to compete with large trees and have more access to light water
Research by study co-author and former CU undergraduate Rachel Ertz showed concentrations of nitrate in the needles of small pines that survived beetle infestations were higher than those in healthy trees outside
and Gene Likens of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook N y. The severe pine beetle epidemic in Colorado
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 researchers measured stream nitrate concentrations at more than 100 sites in western Colorado containing lodgepole pines with a range of beetle-induced tree damage.
The sweets and dairy pattern was characterized by the largest proportions of energy from baked goods milk sweetened coffee and tea and dairy-based desserts and the lowest intakes of poultry.
Consulting geologist Stewart Redwood determined that the cache consists of a small dacite stone fashioned into a cylindrical tool;
and Central america Redwood said. However there are no gold artifacts in the rock-shelter and there's no evidence that the stones were collected in the course of gold prospecting as the age of the cache predates the earliest known gold artifacts from Panama by more than 2000 years.
Her research also showed that the people who would have benefitted from the shaman's knowledge practiced small-scale farming of maize manioc and arrowroot and collected palm nuts tree fruits and wild tubers.
Tree rings reveal climate variability and human historya total of 545 precisely dated tree-ring width samples both from living trees and from larch wood (Larix decidua Mill.)
taken from historical buildings in the northern Carpathian arc of Slovakia were used to reconstruct May-June temperatures yearly back to 1040 AD.
The tree-ring data from the Tatra Mountains best reflects the climate history of Eastern europe with a geographical focus on the Baltic.
The tree-ring record reveals several cold phases around 1150 1400 and in the 19th century.
In addition to the development of the tree ring-based temperature history the interdisciplinary research team*compared past climate variability with human history.
and carefully analyzed tree-ring chronologies can contain much more information than supposed so far#.
For a 2012 study in the Journal of Proteome Research the scientists used nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to study the amino acid composition of juice from oranges grown on HLB-positive or HLB-negative trees.
fruit from healthy trees; symptom-free fruit from HLB-positive trees; and fruit with HLB symptoms from HLB-positive trees.
With further research the profiles may prove to be a reliable rapid and early indicator of the presence of the HLB pathogen in an orchard according to Breksa.
He is with the Agricultural research service (ARS) Western Regional Research center in Albany Calif. ARS is the USDA's chief intramural scientific research agency
For instance if the HLB pathogen were causing havoc with the trees'ability to create use
An orange tree can convert this amino acid into cinnamic acid a precursor to compounds thought to be important to the tree's defense system.
But the researchers found that juice squeezed from oranges of HLB-positive trees had significantly higher concentrations of phenylalanine
which suggests that the HLB pathogen may have interfered with the tree's conversion of phenylalanine to cinnamic acid.
Firstly they found that honey bees preferred to visit flowers in the top parts of the almond trees.
Where wild pollinators were present they often visited the lower parts of the trees filling the gap in pollination service left by the honey bees.
RAPID deterioration in mangrove health is occurring in the Sundarbans resulting in as much as 200m of coast disappearing in a single year.
The area is is the largest block of continuous mangrove forest in the world being home to almost 500 species of reptile fish bird
Although mangroves are rare they are an important barrier against climate change providing protection to coastal areas from tsunamis and cyclones.
Mangroves comprise less than 1 per cent of all forest areas across the world amounting to roughly half the size of the UK.
It is essential that the protection of mangroves becomes a priority particularly for the charismatic species
ZSL's Chief Mangrove Scientific Advisor Jurgenne Primavera says: Mangrove protection is given urgent the continuing threats to the world's remaining 14 to 15 million hectares of mangroves from aquaculture land development and overexploitation.
The recently established IUCN SSC Mangrove Specialist Group hosted by ZSL will develop a global conservation strategy for mangroves based on an assessment of research and conservation needs.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Zoological Society of London. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
what looked like a tree. The diagram started at a central point with a common ancestor then the lines spread apart as organisms evolved
If you try to make a tree of population histories within a species there's always the possibility that you've got genes flowing from one branch to another Pritchard said.
or if there's movement from one place to another then this tree representation is not necessarily going to be a good way of representing history.
The goal of this research is to learn more about departures from'tree-ness.''Pritchard and Pickrell developed software called Treemix that compares how often variants of a particular gene from different populations appear in the same species. It then calculates how closely groups are related
What I like about this is that it's starting to give us some resolution on relationships that are just much more complicated than you can capture using the standard tree approach Pritchard said.
whereas the traditional tree-based method would just show a primary relationship to Middle Easterners.
#Tree seeds offer potential for sustainable biofuelstree seeds rather than biomass or fuel crop plants could represent an abundant source of renewable energy according to research published in the International Journal of Automotive technology and Management.
and sal trees have almost as good a thermal efficiency as biodiesel but would produce lower emissions of carbon monoxide waste hydrocarbons and NOX (nitrogen oxides).
Sukumar Puhan of the GKM College of Engineering and Technology and colleagues N. Vedaraman and K c. Velappan of the Central Leather Research Institute in Chennai India explain how tree seeds represent a vast untapped
The use of tree seed oils as a source could have several additional benefits over vegetable seed oils including lower viscosity and greater volatility both
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.
The team has tested now successfully this chemistry on seeds from the mahua and sal trees.
because the tree has greater value for its wood and also has a much longer maturation period than mahua at 25 years.
Biodiesel production from tree seeds in India will not only reduce the dependence on crude oil imports
#Mixed forests more productive than monoculturesforestry and nature conservation can benefit from promoting a diversity of tree species new study finds.
Many people have suggested that high diversity of tree species has a favorable impact on processes in the ecosystem
By examining the role played by the occurrence of diverse tree species for six different ecosystem services (tree growth carbon storage berry production food for wildlife occurrence of dead wood
and biological diversity) the study demonstrates that all six services were positively related to the number of tree species. Different trees contribute to different services.
For example the amount of spruce is related to high tree growth and the amount of pine to berry production while carbon storage was found in plots with more birch
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.
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.
#Pythons, lionfish and now willow invade Floridas waterwaysforeign invaders such as pythons and lionfish are not the only threats to Florida's natural habitat.
The native Carolina Willow is also starting to strangle portions of the St johns river. Biologists at the University of Central Florida recently completed a study that shows this slender tree once used by Native americans for medicinal purposes may be thriving because of water-management projects initiated in the 1950s.
The unintended consequence--stable water levels--allowed Carolina Willow to spread and thrive. They now cover thousands of acres.
Willows form impenetrable thickets that prevent boating and eliminate duck habitat. Willow thickets also use tremendous amounts of water leaving less available for wildlife and people.
The findings were published January 8 in Restoration Ecology the peer-reviewed journal of the Society for Ecological Restoration.
While the trees previously were kept in check by natural annual flooding they can now be found thriving in wetlands swamps and marshes.
Some trees grow as tall as 35 feet. The leaves of the tree contain salicin
which is the compound behind the pain-relieving effect of salicylic acid found in aspirin. UCF professors Pedro F. Quintana-Ascencio and John Fauth worked with Kimberli Ponzio
and Dianne Hall scientists from the St johns river Water Management District to run experiments that found ways to control the willow
which is taking over marshes in the upper St johns river basin UCF students helped plant hundreds of willow seedlings
Willows planted low on the islands drowned during summer floods but plants above the waterline grew
The biologists confirmed the importance of water fluctuation using experimental ponds on UCF's main campus. Willow seedlings
Combined the two experiments show that the key to controlling willow is allowing water levels to fluctuate in early spring.
Seedlings and small saplings cannot survive dry conditions and are drowned easily in wet marshes. Once plants become larger willows can survive droughts
and tolerate floods and are very difficult to eradicate Fauth said. Based on the conclusions of the study the UCF biologists are helping scientists at the water district develop new ways to reduce willow cover
and slow down the expansion Fauth said. It's important that these trees be controlled to maintain water quality
and availability conserve wildlife and continue enjoying recreational activities in the river Fauth said. The study may also aid other countries fighting the Carolina willow including Australia
and South korea where they were introduced for erosion control. Other contributors to the study include: former UCF biology student Luz M. Castro Morales and Ken Snyder of the St johns river Water Management District.
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