#Trees that can increase biomass productionthanks to biotechnology researchers at UPM have increased the production of woody species. This result is of great interest to the energy market.
However some lateral buds sprout during the same season such as poplar trees other salicaceae species and many tropical species. This way a syleptic branching can increase de amount of branches leaf
area and the tree growth in general mainly during their first years of life. On that basis researchers at UPM have used a biotechnological procedure to modify the gene expression levels of RAV1 (Related to ABI3
and Viviparous 1) that increases the development of sylleptic branching of woody species. Thus researchers have found a way of increasing biomass production of a poplar plantation.
In North america we've been replanting trees that were lost in the 1800s after settlers showed up
By growing trees or not harvesting them around a field you may be able to have an indirect effect on the number of aphids on your soybean plants says Barton who wonders what other close animal relationships may be disrupted by shifting winds.
The research team constructed a new evolutionary tree of a major family of wild plant species taking the distance between species as a proxy for plant trait diversity.
However using the evolutionary tree they found that as the seed bank collection grew in the future
#Tree rings used to determine history of geological features, arroyosa new GSA Bulletin study uses tree rings to document arroyo evolution along the lower Rio Puerco and Chaco
By determining burial dates in tree rings from salt cedar and willow investigators were able to precisely date arroyo sedimentary beds 30 cm thick or greater.
To reconstruct the past 600 years of upwelling along the California coast the team used tree ring data from long-lived blue oak trees.
The researchers demonstrated that growth patterns in blue oak trees near the coast are highly sensitive to the same climate factors associated with upwelling.
When they compared the tree ring data with these various biological indicators they found poor upwelling years correlated with drops in biological productivity.
Researchers have used tree rings to reconstruct climate patterns such as ENSO before but this is the first study to target such a focused region with such strong and direct consequences on animal growth
and reproductive success. The tree ring data allowed researchers to understand how these ecosystems were influenced by climate variation
For instance the paper birch--a popular foliage tree that is the state tree of New hampshire--could change color one to three weeks later by the end of the century the researchers found.
Although some trees will be less susceptible to the ongoing heat than the paper birch the more southern the region the more likely there is to be a greater overall delay in leaf coloration the researchers found.
Trees need daily temperatures to be low enough and daylight hours to be short enough to produce the vivid vistas of fall explained senior author David Medvigy an assistant professor of geosciences and associated faculty member at the Princeton Environmental Institute.
but that the influence of these factors depends on the individual tree species and the specific geographic area.
What we noticed from observations was that some trees were keeping their leaves later in the autumn Medvigy said.
They collected data on leaf-change dates for several tree species both in Alaska using the USA National Phenology Network a free online database of seasonal-change observations recorded by scientists
The species examined were American beech aspen black oak northern red oak paper birch red maple sugar maple and sweet birch. They grouped the tree species into three categories based on their tolerance of shade.
For example birches need a great deal of sunlight; beeches can survive in a shaded environment; and oaks are somewhere in the middle.
The nearly 20 species the study reviewed fell neatly into one of these three categories.
Medvigy and Jeong found that prediction modeling for the entire United states indeed improves dramatically when the analyses include data from macro-scale observations meaning from multiple sites spread over a large area.
In addition they report that temperature and duration of sunlight are both significant factors in determining
when tree leaves color in the fall. Previous studies have tended to rely on one factor or the other not both Medvigy said.
So if there is an increase in fall temperatures for example tree species in Massachusetts will respond to a greater degree than species in Alaska Medvigy said.
and shelter to hundreds of species and fulfil a role similar to trees in terrestrial forests.
Trees in Central europe continue to grow at a faster rate, long-term study findstrees have been growing significantly faster since the 1960s.
The typical development phases of trees and stands have changed barely but they have accelerated--by as much as 70 percent.
Accelerated growthin the cases of spruce and beech respectively the dominant species of coniferous and deciduous trees in Central europe the TUM scientists noted significantly accelerated tree growth.
Beech trees exhibited a growth rate that was 77 percent faster than in 1960 while the figure for spruce was 32 percent faster.
The stand volume growth for beech was 30 percent and 10 percent for spruce. The stands as a whole had a lower growth rate than the individual trees essentially
because larger trees require more space hence each stand will have fewer trees explains Pretzsch. The scientists are putting the growth acceleration down to rising temperatures and the extended growing season.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen are other factors contributing to the faster growth. The concentrations of these gases in the atmosphere have been rising steadily over the last century.
Interestingly we observed that acid rain only had a temporary slowing effect on the growth of our experimental plots.
Change requires adaptationwhile the trees both grow and age faster the appearance of the forest does not change as a result.
But the same tree and stand sizes are achieved significantly earlier than in the past. This could benefit the forestry industry in that target diameters
Meanwhile the accelerated growth and aging of trees is also significant for the forest ecosystem as a whole as Pretzsch explains:
Long-term observation provides unique pool of datathe study was based on 600000 individual tree surveys conducted since 1870.
Over such a long timescale it was possible to determine from the growth of the trees how they responded to changing environmental conditions.
We did not observe the trees in isolation but rather always in interaction with their neighbors.
This helped us understand how the dynamics of individual trees influence the stand as a whole. The growth trends at stand level are relevant for the forestry industry in terms of productivity carbon sequestration
Applying biomechanical formulae to a treasure trove of thousands of fossilized leaves of angiosperms--flowering plants excluding conifers--the team was able to reconstruct the ecology of a diverse plant community thriving during a 2. 2 million-year period
Living examples of evergreen angiosperms such as holly and ivy tend to prefer shade don't grow very fast
#Each tree species has unique bacterial identity, microbiome research showseach tree species has its own bacterial identity.
That's the conclusion of University of Oregon researchers and colleagues from other institutions who studied the genetic fingerprints of bacteria on 57 species of trees growing on a Panamanian island.
This study demonstrates for the first time that host plants from different plant families and with different ecological strategies possess very different microbial communities on their leaves said lead author Steven W. Kembel a former postdoctoral researcher in the UO's Institute of Ecology
For the research--published this week in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences--researchers gathered bacterial samples from 57 of the more than 450 tree species growing in a lowland tropical forest
Each tree species of tree possessed a distinctive community of bacteria on its leaves. In the world of microbiology plant leaves are considered to be a habitat known as the phyllosphere.
when growing on the leaves of fast-growing or slow-growing tree species or on leaves with different concentrations of elements such as nitrogen or phosphorus. Because of the importance of the microbiome for the growth and function of the host understanding the factors
that influence bacteria on the leaves of different trees could have important implications for our ability to model
#Tropical tree microbiome discovered in Panamahuman skin and gut microbes influence processes from digestion to disease resistance.
Despite the fact that tropical forests are the most biodiverse terrestrial ecosystems on the planet more is known about bellybutton bacteria than bacteria on trees in the tropics.
Smithsonian scientists and colleagues working on Panama's Barro Colorado Island discovered that small leaf samples from a single tree were home to more than 400 different kinds of bacteria.
The combined sample from 57 tree species contained more than 7000 different kinds. Bacteria in tropical forests may also play a vital role protecting leaves against pathogens
or negative--we hope to discover what bacteria on tree leaves can tell us about the health of a forest said S. Joseph Wright a Smithsonian scientist
Just as on human skin many of the bacteria on tropical tree leaves were Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria.
Many bacteria were associated with certain functional traits such as leaf thickness wood density or leaf nitrogen content characteristics that directly impact tree growth survival and reproduction.
The relationships between many of the bacteria and tree species they sampled were ancient going back to the ancestors of both the bacteria
and the trees as they evolved in tandem. Our ability to use molecular techniques like 16s RIBOSOMAL RNA gene sequencing to characterize nearly all of the bacteria on a leaf is going to make it possible to see how very different members of forest communities interact said Wright.
#Femme fatale emerald ash borer decoy lures, kills malesan international team of researchers has designed decoys that mimic female emerald ash borer beetles
and successfully entice male emerald ash borers to land on them in an attempt to mate only to be electrocuted
According to the Forest Service the emerald ash borer was introduced to the United states from China in 2002.
and two Canadian provinces and killed tens of millions of otherwise healthy native ash trees. Early detection of the pest in traps such as ours can help in coordinating management strategies to slow its spread
and we will be working to couple this research with our ash-borer detection technique so that activity of the pest can be reported
of which are aggressive feeders on oak trees in Central europe and might threaten North american oaks in urban
and forest landscapes much as the emerald ash borer destroyed ash trees. We have made progress in our research so far in Hungary these past few summers
and it looks like our decoys can be refined to attract and detect these other new and potentially invasive pest species effectively said Domingue.
Another factor in the changes may have been the near-simultaneous spread of eastern spruce trees which continue to be the dominant tree in the area.
We are beginning to understand how pioneer growth on the emerging land increased the elk population
But when natural gas replaces coal as a fuel for generating electricity the benefits to air quality include lower carbon dioxide emissions than coal and almost none of the mercury sulfur dioxide or ash.
One study they cite found that the agricultural use of fracking wastewater killed more than half of nearby trees within two years.
HR is thought to occur in all higher-order plants including all trees and crop plants and is normally a tightly regulated response.
How are we restructuring the tree of life? What are the implications for people? And what can we do to harmonize farming with nature?
The further apart species are on the evolutionary tree the more phylogenetic diversity your system represents.
Different species specialize in keeping different pest insects under control in pollinating the many flowering trees and other plants in tropical landscapes and then in dispersing their seeds.
In the Congo Basin for instance two out of the three largest new oil palm projects currently under development have been found to be operating illegally;
Natural repellants such as clove oil citronella lemon grass eucalyptus castor oil peppermint lavender and cedar oil all work to a limited extent Pitts said
#Combining antibodies, iron nanoparticles and magnets steers stem cells to injured organsresearchers at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute infused antibody-studded iron nanoparticles into the bloodstream to treat
n MD Phd director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute who led the research team.
The Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute has been at the forefront of developing investigational stem cell treatments for heart attack patients.
and has licensed it to Capricor a company in which Cedars-Sinai and Dr. Marbã¡n have a financial interest.
Capricor is providing funds for the ALLSTAR clinical trial at Cedars-Sinai. Recently the Heart Institute opened the nation's first Regenerative Medicine Clinic designed to match heart
and vascular disease patients with appropriate stem cell clinical trials being conducted at Cedars-Sinai and other institutions.
The above story is provided based on materials by Cedars-Sinai Medical center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length
. but good wintering habitat in Colombian coffee-growing landscapes. The passenger pigeon once numbering in the billions is a strong reminder that even species considered common can become extinct without careful attention as it did Sept. 1 1914.
#The saplings go their own way: New explanation for dominance of generalists among tropical treesin tropical rainforests most young trees grow spatially independent from their parent trees.
This means that it is not possible to predict where seedlings will take root and less specialised species therefore have an advantage even in the species-rich rainforests of the tropics.
A total of 300 different tree species grow in this 50 ha lowland rainforest. 65 species were selected on an area measuring 1000 x 500 metres.
and found no spatial association between the parent trees and their offspring in around three-quarters of the species. This result was very surprising
because seed dispersal in this tropical forest is limited usually very so we would expect the offspring to grow close to the parent trees explains Dr Stephan Getzin of the UFZ.
Neutral theory attempts to explain the biodiversity of tropical rainforests with the simplified assumption that all tree species behave in the same way.
In species-rich forests every tree has random neighbours. According to Hubbell species have become generalists
The new study shows that stochastic influences also play an important part in determining the location of young trees i e. the type of habitat in
which they will grow which again turns tree species into generalists. The data from the lowland rainforest of Panama and the tree coordinates from a mountainous rainforest of Sri lanka form a unique resource.
In these two rainforests the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and countless volunteers have for years been recording every tree with a diameter wider than a pencil on a plot measuring between 25 and 50 hectares.
A forest census is carried out every five years so it is likely that no other forest in the world is documented as well as these two.
Our model covers between 50000 and 100000 trees and every change has to be calculated for every tree.
This results in two million sets of parameters for each simulation run which takes a week
Hall Jill Stewart Jesper Larsen Keeve E. Nachman Dave C. Love Elizabeth Pierce Nora Pisanic Jean Strelitz Laurel Harduar-Morano
By revealing the 3-D architecture of forests in unprecedented detail GEDI will provide crucial information about the impact that trees have on the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.
Although it is established well that trees absorb carbon and store it long-term scientists have not quantified exactly how much carbon forests contain.
if a forest were destroyed nor how well emissions could be countered by planting new trees. One of the most poorly quantified components of the carbon cycle is the net balance between forest disturbance
because it's a laser-based system called a lidar that can measure the distance from the space-based instrument to Earth's surface with enough accuracy to detect subtle variations including the tops of trees the ground and the vertical distribution of aboveground
Lidar has the unique ability to peer into the tree canopy to precisely measure the height
or vertical profile when a pulse interacts with leafy tree tops versus woody branches and trunks or the ground.
These fingerprints will provide enough detail to measure the height of the trees and where the tree canopy begins with an accuracy of about 3-1/3 feet (1 meter).
From this information scientists will be able to estimate how much biomass the trees contain and in turn how much carbon they are storing.
By combining these findings with spatially comprehensive maps from other satellites showing where development and deforestation are taking place
They also may be able to estimate the age of trees in specific forests. The ultimate goal Dubayah said is to be able to monitor these and other changes in forests over time.
Olive trees native to the Mediterranean region have been documented on almost 800 acres in the state and many affiliated with the new industry believe the acreage is closer to 2000 according to Texas A&m Agrilife Extension service horticulturists.
For Curtis Mickan olive trees are a viable way to keep the 140-plus-year-old Williamson County farm in his family.
This isn't the first time Texas growers have eyed olive trees. Texas A&m Agrilife Research scientist Earnest Mortensen studied his olive tree planting in the Carrizo Springs area in the 1930s.
Some of his trees still survive. Another resurgence of interest took place in the 1970s and 1980s.
The most recent and longstanding effort to produce olives began in the late 1990s Nesbitt said
The main lesson from previous plantings Nesbitt said is that olive trees are limited most by climate.
Swafford noted that their acreage suffered a debilitating freeze in March that reduced the trees to tumbleweed look-alikes.
Fortunately most of the trees recovered and grew so much that he pruned them severely in order to encourage olive development.
His olive trees grow in a high-density planting method and a drip irrigation system. With a variety of soils on the land and so many rocks that he suggests visitors take one with them Swafford said caliche has yielded the best growth thus far.
Cotton root rot a long-established disease in much of the state has been a problem for young trees according to Stein.
He said another challenge to consider is how to grow the trees in terms of how many per acre
Some of you may want an acre of trees some of you may want 10 trees.
The trees are five years old and and between five and seven years is when they start producing really good crops.
Ancient peach stones offer clues to fruits originsas peach trees in the Niagara Region of Ontario give up the last of their fruit for the season their ancestors halfway around the globe are clamouring for attention.
but the role of trees in early farming and how trees were domesticated is documented not well.
Unlike most trees the peach matures very quickly producing fruit within two to three years
if a seed will produce the same fruit as the tree that produced it. It's a gamble.
but the woodlands and certain trees were being manipulated early on. There is a general sense that people in the past were not as smart as we are said Crawford.
The cottonwood is on the way out he noted because they require floods and new sandbars to regenerate.
American elm is gone mostly from Dutch elm disease and ash trees are being threatened by the emerald ash borer. Restoring tall prairie grasses Seven years ago Johnson became one of the founders of the Ecosun Prairie Farms to demonstrate the viability of a working grass farm as a means of restoring tall grass prairie and pothole wetlands.
He and his cohorts formed the nonprofit organization and leased a section of land near Colman where they began planting blue stem prairie cord grass and other perennial species native to the area on retired cropland.
#Coffee genome sheds light on the evolution of caffeinethe newly sequenced genome of the coffee plant reveals secrets about the evolution of man's best chemical friend:
and positions of genes in the coffee plant show that they evolved independently from genes with similar functions in tea and chocolate
In other words coffee did not inherit caffeine-linked genes from a common ancestor but instead developed the genes on its own.
Why Coffee? With more than 2. 25 billion cups consumed daily worldwide coffee is the principal agricultural product of many tropical countries.
According to estimates by the International Coffee Organization more than 8. 7 million tons of coffee were produced in 2013 revenue from exports amounted to $15. 4 billion in 2009-2010
and the sector employed nearly 26 million people in 52 countries during 2010. Coffee is as important to everyday early risers as it is to the global economy.
Accordingly a genome sequence could be a significant step toward improving coffee said Philippe Lashermes a researcher at The french Institute of Research for Development (IRD.
By looking at the coffee genome and genes specific to coffee we were able to draw some conclusions about
what makes coffee special. Lashermes along with Patrick Wincker and France Denoeud genome scientists at The french National Sequencing Center (CEA-Genoscope)
and Victor Albert professor of biological sciences at the University at Buffalo are the principal authors of the study.
The team created a high-quality draft of the genome of Coffea canephora which accounts for about 30 percent of the world's coffee production according to the Manhattan-based National Coffee Association.
Next the scientists looked at how coffee's genetic make-up is distinct from other species. Compared to several other plant species including the grape
and tomato coffee harbors larger families of genes that relate to the production of alkaloid
and flavonoid compounds which contribute to qualities such as coffee aroma and the bitterness of beans.
Coffee also has expanded an collection of N-methyltransferases enzymes that are involved in making caffeine. Upon taking a closer look the researchers found that coffee's caffeine enzymes are more closely related to other genes within the coffee plant than to caffeine enzymes in tea and chocolate.
This finding suggests that caffeine production developed independently in coffee. If this trait had been inherited from a common ancestor the enzymes would have been more similar between species. The coffee genome helps us understand what's exciting about coffee--other than that it wakes
me up in the morning Albert said. By looking at which families of genes expanded in the plant
and the relationship between the genome structure of coffee and other species we were able to learn about coffee's independent pathway in evolution including--excitingly--the story of caffeine.
Why caffeine is so important in nature is another question. Scientists theorize that the chemical may help plants repel insects or stunt competitors'growth.
One recent paper showed that pollinators--like humans--may develop caffeine habits. Insects that visited caffeine-producing plants often returned to get another taste.
It also provides the opportunity to better understand the evolution of coffee's genome structure.
It turns out that over evolutionary time the coffee genome wasn't triplicated as in its relatives:
Instead it maintained a structure similar to the grape's. As such evolutionary diversification of the coffee genome was driven likely more by duplications in particular gene families as opposed to en masse when all genes in the genome duplicate.
Coffee lies in the plant family Rubiaceae which has about 13000 species and is the world's fourth largest;
tree salamanders have same dietssalamanders spend the vast majority of their lives below ground and surface only for short periods of time and usually only on wet nights.
When they do emerge salamanders can be spotted not only on forest floors but also up in trees and on other vegetation oftentimes climbing as high as 8 feet up.
The researchers captured an equal number of salamanders on the ground and up on trees or shrubs and then brought them back to the lab where they anesthetized them
What was surprising was that the salamanders collected on trees did not have anything one would associate with a plant-feeding insect like aphids.
and current evidence suggest that they represent an early branch on the tree of life with similarities to the 600 mill old extinct Ediacara fauna.
so they are a direct indicator of the Bay's health said lead-author Cassie Gurbisz of the Center's Horn Point Laboratory.
and served to kick start a rapid resurgence said Cassie Gurbisz. Light availability is the most important factor in the growth of submersed plants.
Analysis of time series data by Cassie Gurbisz and Michael Kemp of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental science's Horn Point Laboratory was published in the March 2014 issue of Limnology and Oceanography.
or garages eating the dead stuff that accumulates there says Dr. Holly Menninger director of public science in the Your Wild Life lab at NC State
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