(which the fungus also needs) from pasture grape pomace coffee or pineapple crown. This preparation where the mushrooms are to be developed is called substrate.
and Sequoia national parks but these areas have not been a focus of this type of research.
Using a 40-meter-tall canopy crane equipped with a gondola they were able to collect leaves from the very top of trees in Panama and the United states. They measured leaf vein density in 132 species from two
Cochrane estimates that the peat contains 20 times as much carbon as the forest trees themselves did.
Did they fall from trees and learn to flap their forelimbs to avoid crashing? Or did they run along the ground
however and Dudley favors the scenario that flight developed in tree-dwelling animals falling and eventually evolving the ability to glide and fly.
Drinking coffee and even decaffeinated coffee were associated also with lower type 2 diabetes risk. Participants who followed a Mediterranean eating plan--without restricting calories--showed a greater improvement in glycemic control
One is based on shrubs trees and herbs whose photosynthesis contains intermediate products with three carbon atoms (C3).
Thus aided by the farmers the scientists installed box traps at marking trees which were hidden by thorn bushes except for a narrow passage.
The only way to reach their tree is passing the trap. Once a cheetah is captured it is sedated
or additives within similarly shaped wine jars including honey storax resin terebinth resin cedar oil cyperus juniper and possibly mint myrtle and cinnamon.
and kill trees --and the news is not good. Recent studies found that scale insect populations increase on oak
and maple trees in warmer urban areas which raises the possibility that these pests may also increase with global warming says Dr. Elsa Youngsteadt a research associate at NC State
and lead author of a paper on the work. More scale insects would be a problem
or kill the trees they live on Youngsteadt says. But cities are unique so we wanted to know
To address that question Youngsteadt examined more than 300 museum specimens of red maple branches collected between 1895 and 2011 in rural areas of North carolina South carolina
which showed that two species of scale insects infesting maple and oak benefit from urban warming.
Unexpected diversity in New zealand tree, kanuka genus Kunzeaat the stroke of a pen a New zealand endemic tree has for the last 31 years been regarded incorrectly the same as a group of'weedy'Australian shrubs and small trees.
and discover astonishing cryptic diversity behind what was considered long a single tree species. The study was published in the open access journal Phytokeys.
and New zealand species into the one shared species--Kunzea ericoides--resulted in absolute mayhem as a range of important New zealand trees
Aside from Kunzea robusta de Lange recognises two other common new tree species (K. amathicola and K. serotina) and another four narrow-range endemics
#Signatures of selection inscribed on poplar genomesone aspect of the climate change models researchers have been developing looks at how plant ranges might shift
and analyses to understand the processes involved in shaping the genetic variation of natural poplar (Populus trichocarpa) populations.
As part of this long-term study the team took samples from 1100 poplar trees growing in wild populations in California Oregon Washington and British columbia.
They then clonally propagated (through cuttings) these trees in three plantations in California and Oregon.
The shift from an approach focused on single candidate genes to the large-scale computational approach analyzing all of them is made possible by the availability of the poplar genome
and served as a model for genome-level insights in forest trees. The publication itself has been cited more than 1000 times in a wide variety of journals.
Watch a video of Tuskan on the importance of selection in trees at http://bit. ly/Tuskan14fingerprints.
Evans also noted that their study yielded nearly 18 million single base pair variants of DNA sequence (called SNPS) in poplar.
This provides an immediate resource for tree breeding programs he said. The team identified 397 genomic regions that contribute to adaptive traits for wild populations of poplars.
For example data gathered on height spring bud flush and fall bud set from the clonally-replicated poplars growing in three plantations indicated that in warmer climates trees with earlier bud flush and later bud set were favored.
Given the importance of poplar trees not just for their role in the ecosystem for instance in capturing carbon
but also for their economic importance in fields ranging from timber to bioenergy Evans noted that the ability to have plantations of poplars through vegetative propagation is a significant tree-breeding tool for picking the appropriate stocks for the task.
If you know every base in a genome you can skip whole generations and use genomic information to predict how well an individual will do said he.
The evolutionary tree we constructed from genome sequences does not support an origin in Africa this gives us new insight into how honeybees spread
It literally grows on trees. The discovery is based on the science project of a 13-year-old girl who spent the summer gathering soil
and tree samples from areas around Los angeles hardest hit by infections of the fungus named Cryptococcus gattii (CRIP-to-cock-us GAT-ee-eye).
The study which appears Aug 21 in PLOS Pathogens found strong genetic evidence that three tree species--Canary Island pine Pohutukawa
The student sampled 109 swabs of more than 30 tree species and 58 soil samples grew
She was surprised to find that specimens from three of the tree species were genetically almost indistinguishable from the patient specimens.
The scientists discovered the same mechanism recently with regard to birch pollen allergy. Their findings help to decipher allergic reactions
Every week there's a new explanation of the hiatus said corresponding author Ka-Kit Tung a UW professor of applied mathematics and adjunct faculty member in atmospheric sciences.
since the current theories had pointed to the Pacific ocean as the culprit for hiding heat Tung said.
Tung and co-author Xianyao Chen of the Ocean University of China who was a UW visiting professor last year used recent observations of deep-sea temperatures from Argo floats that sample the water down to 6500 feet (2000
and Southern oceans Tung said. After 30 years of rapid warming in the warm phase now it's time for the cool phase.
and takes heat with it Tung said. Recent observations at the surface in the North Atlantic show record-high saltiness Tung said while at the same time deeper water in the North Atlantic shows increasing amounts of heat.
The authors dug up historical data to show that the cooling in the three decades between 1945 to 1975--which caused people to worry about the start of an Ice age--was during a cooling phase.
But Tung emphasizes it's hard to predict what will happen next. A pool of freshwater from melting ice now sitting in the Arctic ocean could overflow into the North Atlantic to upset the cycle.
because there are so many other things happening due to climate change Tung said. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Washington.
Tree of possibilitiesplanning an autonomous vehicle's course often involves an approach called Markov Decision Process (MDP) a sequential decision-making framework that resembles a tree of possible actions.
Each node along a tree can branch into several potential actions--each of which if taken may result in even more possibilities.
This approach generates a similar tree of possibilities although each node represents a probability distribution or the likelihood of a given outcome.
Imagine a huge tree of possibilities and a large chunk of leaves collapses to one leaf and you end up with maybe 10 leaves instead of a million leaves Agha-mohammadi says.
In this regard he and his colleagues used POMDP to generate a tree of possible health outcomes including fuel levels and the status of sensors and propellers.
or stand of trees where the land is converted thereafter to a nonforest use. Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms ranches or urban use.
or small tree that are prevalent in southern California have been the focus of Dr. Mahalingam's research:
manzanita which can grow as a bush or small tree; and scrub oak a small tree.
A. Dahale; S. Ferguson; B. Shotorban; S. Mahalingam Effects of Distribution of Bulk Density and Moisture Content on Shrub Fires International J. Wildland Fire 22 (5) pp. 625-641 2013
and tree crown burning. That work continued after he came to UAH in 2010 and started collaborating with Dr. Shotorban.
After being struck by lightning for example a tree can grow back its entire crown. But there is one major downside to life as a plant:
#Trees, shrubs invading critical grasslands, diminish cattle productionhalf of Earth's land mass is made up of rangelands
Woody plants such as trees and shrubs are moving in and taking over leading to a loss of critical habitat
We found that an increase in tree and shrub cover of one percent leads to a two percent loss in livestock production.
In recent years the U s. government shelled out millions of dollars in an effort to stop the advance of trees and shrubs.
And to account for the effects of different socioeconomic factors researchers quantified the impact of tree cover on livestock production in two areas of the world that have similar environments but different level of economic development.
Surprisingly the presence of trees explained a larger fraction of livestock production in Argentina than in the US.
Why are trees and shrubs taking over grasslands? There are several hypotheses as to why woody plant encroachment is happening.
We now know how much increase in tree cover is affecting the cattle ranchers. Sala and his colleagues hope that the information found in their study will be used to inform discussions as policy makers
and to climb trees. The results of the genetic comparison indicated that there was a statistical difference between the two groups indicative of multi gene adaptation.
of a common tree poppy California redwood chaparral currant Jeffrey pine and Valley oak. Manual adjustments to the automatic algorithm can be saved for different plants
Lead author Anna Gassman-Pines found that when 1 percent of a state's working population lost jobs suicide-related behaviors increased by 2 to 3 percentage points among girls and black adolescents in the following year.
Job loss can be unanticipated an shock to a community said Gassman-Pines who teaches public policy at Duke's Sanford School of Public Policy
Gassman-Pines also examined mass layoffs and closings in all 50 states and the District of columbia using data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In their analysis Gassman-Pines and her Duke co-authors Elizabeth Ananat and Christina Gibson-Davis controlled for confounding variables such as poverty rate and overall unemployment.
'and black adolescents'suicide-related behaviors Gassman-Pines writes. For girls economic hardship appears to have worsened existing tendencies.
Gassman-Pines said she hopes the research may help mental health workers identify teens who could be suicide risks.
Previous research by Gassman-Pines Ananat and Gibson-Davis found that after states experienced widespread job loss test scores dropped among eighth-graders in that state.
#New analysis links tree height to climatewhat limits the height of trees? Is it the fraction of their photosynthetic energy they devote to productive new leaves?
what combination) actually sets maximum tree height and how their relative importance varies in different parts of the world.
--and currently posted online as a preprint--Thomas Givnish a professor of botany at the University of Wisconsin-Madison attempts to resolve this debate by studying how tree height resource allocation
There Eucalyptus species exhibit almost the entire global range in height among flowering trees from 4 feet to more than 300 feet.
Since Galileo's time Givnish says people have wondered what determines maximum tree height:''Where are the tallest trees
and why are they so tall?''Our study talks about the kind of constraints that could limit maximum tree height
and how those constraints and maximum height vary with climate. One of the species under study Eucalyptus regnans--called mountain ash in Australia
but distinct from the smaller and unrelated mountain ash found in the U s.--is the tallest flowering tree in the world.
In Tasmania an especially rainy part of southern Australia the tallest living E. regnans is 330 feet tall.
The tallest tree in the world is a coastal redwood in northern California that soars 380 feet above the ground.
and low evaporation rates underlining the importance of moisture supply to ultra-tall trees. But the new study by Givnish Graham Farquhar of the Australian National University and others shows that rainfall alone cannot explain maximum tree height.
A second factor evaporative demand helps determine how far a given amount of rainfall will go toward meeting a tree's demands.
Warm dry and sunny conditions cause faster evaporation from leaves and Givnish and his colleagues found a tight relationship between maximum tree height in old stands in Australia and the ratio of annual rainfall to evaporation.
As that ratio increased so did maximum tree height. Other factors--like soil fertility the frequency of wildfires
and length of the growing season--also affect tree height. Tall fast-growing trees access more sunlight and can capture more energy through photosynthesis. They are more obvious to pollinators
and have potential to outcompete other species. Infrastructure--things like wood and roots that are essential to growth
but do not contribute to the production of energy through photosynthesis--affect resource allocation and can explain the importance of the ratio of moisture supply to evaporative demand.
In moist areas trees can allocate less to building roots Givnish says. Other things being equal having lower overhead should allow them to achieve greater height.
When these trees intake more carbon dioxide they can achieve greater height before their overhead exceeds their photosynthetic income.
The constraints on tree height imposed by resource allocation and hydraulics should both increase in drier areas.
If hydraulic limitation alone were to set maximum tree height the carbon isotope composition should not vary
because all trees should grow up to the point at which hydraulics retards photosynthesis. The isotopic composition should also remain stable
But if both factors limit tree height the heavier carbon isotopes should accumulate in moister areas where faster photosynthesis (enhanced by wide-open stomata) can balance the costs of building more wood in taller trees.
Givnish Farquhar and their colleagues found exactly that implying that hydraulic limitation more strongly constrains maximum tree height under drier conditions
Most studies of tree height have focused on finding the tallest trees and explaining why they live where they do Givnish says.
This study was the first to ask'How does the maximum tree height vary with the environment and why?'
and we have shown they are healthier than the flies traditionally used for SIT. â#oewe simulated a wild environment within secure eight-meter greenhouses containing lemon trees at the University of Crete.
The Pine Barrens gentian species (Gentiana autumnalis) thrives after its ecosystem has experienced disturbance as one of the earliest species to begin re-inhabiting empty spaces--a phase known as early succession.
But the gentian and other early successional species in the Pine Barrens are growing rare because of human intervention:
The Pine Barrens of New jersey are second only to California in the frequency of wildfires.
Is mowing--including roadside mowing--an effective replacement for wildfires to help sustain the Pine Barrens gentian population?
and prescribed burns are used rarely as management practices for successional species in the Pine Barrens.
When Snakes Meet the New jersey Highwayroads are a challenge for northern pine snakes (Pituophis melanoleucus) in the New jersey Pine Barrens based on the findings that Ward will present at the ESA meeting on Aug 15.
The difference between the absorption of carbon dioxide via photosynthesis by trees and the release of carbon by microbes determines the overall carbon balance of the forest.
#Loss of eastern hemlock affects peak flows after extreme storm eventsthe loss of eastern hemlock could affect water yield
Eastern hemlock trees have died throughout much of their range due to the hemlock woolly adelgid an exotic invasive insect said Steven Brantley a postdoctoral researcher at Coweeta
Though this insect has decimated whole stands of eastern hemlock along streams in the southern Appalachians few studies have addressed the effects of this insect outbreak on landscape-level watershed processes such as stream flow.
Because of its dense evergreen foliage eastern hemlock plays an important role in the water cycle of southern Appalachian forests regulating stream flow year round.
Although eastern hemlock rarely dominates the region's forests the tree is considered a foundation species in the streamside areas called riparian zones.
Previous research by the Coweeta scientists led them to suspect that the loss of eastern hemlock would cause stream flow to increase over the short-term especially in the dormant fall/winter season then decrease over the longer term with small effects annually.
For this study Coweeta researchers used a paired watershed approach--one watershed with a major hemlock component in the riparian forest area the other reference watershed with very little--to determine the effects of hemlock mortality
Since hemlock woolly adelgid was detected first in 2003 all the eastern hemlock trees in both watersheds died resulting in a loss of 26 percent of forest basal area (that area occupied by tree trunks
Instead of finding that stream flow increased after hemlock mortality we found no real change in any year after infestation said Brantley.
The fact that hemlock loss didn't increase water yield in the short-term was due to the rapid growth response of cooccurring trees and shrubs in the riparian forests;
and peak flows were likely higher after hemlock loss due to lower interception by the evergreen canopy in the riparian zone said Brantley.
This latter finding suggests that riparian trees may play a disproportionally important role in regulating watershed processes than trees that aren't adjacent to the riparian zone.
and range from San mateo County in the north to Santa barbara County in the South sea otters live offshore in forests of kelp--huge yellow-brown rubbery seaweed reaching from the sea floor to the surface like tall trees.
versus natural nesting substrate (e g. trees cliffs rock-outcrops) â#¢presence/absence of agricultural fieldsâ#¢amount of native grassland andâ#¢proximity to habitat edge (where any of four natural habitat
â#¢70 percent of nests located on natural substrates (cottonwood and juniper tress) â#¢Breeding pairs of Red-tailed hawks also considered a generalist species increased substantially from the mid-1970s (1 nest) to the mid-1990s (33 nests)
and have remained stable since that time. Swainson's Hawks: â#¢98 percent of nests located on natural substrates (juniper cottonwood
and cultivated trees) â#¢Nested in communities dominated by native grasses and near agricultural areasferrugionous Hawks:
â#¢Approximately 74 percent of nests were located on natural substrates mostly juniper trees. â#¢Selected areas dominated by contiguous stands of sagebrush. â#¢Ferruginous Hawk nests were located farther from roads
and other human developments when compared to the other species. â#¢Most likely to be impacted negatively by human encroachment.
Surprise ingredients that are neither sweet nor flavorful may be hiding in your coffee and growing coffee shortages may increase the chance of having these fillers in your cup of joe in the future.
The good news is that a highly accurate test is in the works to quickly find coffee containing unwanted fillers before the beverage reaches stores and restaurants.
These extra ingredients though not harmful make ground coffee go farther and increase profits for producers according to researchers.
Their report will be part of the 248th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS.
A test to detect counterfeit coffees is becoming more important in light of growing shortages in regions such as Brazil where droughts
and plant diseases have dramatically cut back coffee supplies. With a lower supply of coffee in the market prices rise and that favors fraud because of the economic gain says research team leader Suzana Lucy Nixdorf Ph d. In 2012 a study from the U k.'s Royal Botanic Gardens
and the Environment stated that 70 percent of the world's coffee supply might disappear by 2080 because of conditions caused by climate change.
But shortages due to more immediate issues already are occurring. The coffee-rich country of Brazil typically produces 55 million bags of coffee each year.
But according to some reports the projected amount for 2014 will likely only reach 45 million bags after this January's extensive drought.
That's about 42 billion fewer cups of coffee for this year. Now however Nixdorf and her team at State university of Londrina in Brazil have developed a way to nip coffee counterfeiting in the bud.
With our test it is now possible to know with 95 percent accuracy if coffee is pure
or has been tampered with either with corn barley wheat soybeans rice beans acai seed brown sugar or starch syrup she says.
and grinding the raw material it becomes impossible to see any difference between grains of lower cost incorporated into the coffee especially because of the dark color and oily texture of coffee.
These impurities can even be parts of the coffee plants introduced at harvest that are supposed not really to be in the final product.
Wood twigs sticks parchment husks whole coffee berries or even clumps of earth that are almost the same color as coffee have been found.
Currently tests to detect these unwanted additives require scientists to check the coffee and those tests are subjective--not quantitative she says.
With these tests the scientists look at the coffee under a microscope or identify various additives by simply tasting the coffee.
In contrast the new test uses liquid chromatography and statistical tools. This gives her team a much closer look at the ingredients in an unbiased way according to Nixdorf.
Because much of the coffee is composed of carbohydrates researchers could develop a characteristic fingerprint when using chromatography that separates out the real coffee compounds says Nixdorf.
The added unwanted grain fillers generate different levels of sugars than the natural ingredients so they are easy to identify she explains.
The chaparral shrublands of southern California and similar sagebrush ecosystems in the Great Basin are adapted not to the kind of frequent fire typical of the mountain conifer forests in California.
In high elevation conifer forests spring temperatures and drought are correlated strongly with fire and Keeley thinks climate change
The state of Nayarit in Mexico is one of the major producers of soursop (Annona muricata) at national and global level
The carbon loss from increasing tree mortality and disturbance could however reduce this uptake and reverse the positive effects of forest management aimed at reducing climate change.
and bush in rocky areas and ridges surrounding eucalyptus-and acacia-dotted grassy sand plains where they forage.
In a typical year ranchers annually burn thousands of acres of grassland to reduce the abundance of undesirable trees
amphibiansthe selective logging of trees in otherwise intact tropical forests can take a serious toll on the number of animal species living there.
and sometimes conflicting picture of the consequences of the selective removal of trees from tropical forests the researchers say.
The new findings indicate that the number of mammal species drops in half at a logging intensity of 38 m3 ha1 equivalent to the extraction of about three or four trees per hectare of forest.
Amphibian diversity is halved at a logging intensity of 63 m3 ha1 or about six to seven trees per hectare the researchers found.
and moths University of Florida scientists have created an extensive Tree of Lepidoptera in the first study to use large-scale next-generation DNA sequencing.
and assistant curator of Lepidoptera at the Florida Museum of Natural history on the UF campus. With a tree we can now understand how the majority of butterfly
but the new tree suggests butterflies are more closely related to small (micro) moths Kawahara said.
The tree also provides a baseline to test whether diurnal or daytime activity a common butterfly trait evolved much earlier than scientists previously believed possibly at a time
Breinholt said although the new tree clarifies our understanding of butterfly and moth relationships many lineages still need to be examined.
These trees are known only or were known from five of the eight main Hawaiian islands. Two are still alive in cultivation saved in part because of their beautiful showy blossoms.
Several were known only from a single wild tree. Remarkably in 2012 field botanists Hank Oppenheimer & Keahi Bustament with the Plant Extinction Prevention Program and Steve Perlman of the National Tropical Botanical garden found a population of these unique trees in a remote
steep valley on the west side of Maui near the resorts areas of Lahaina and Ka`anapali.
Until then the trees have never been known from this area. After careful study at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in Honolulu and elsewhere comparing the new trees with all those previously known it was concluded that these represented a species new to science.
Even more astounding was the number of trees found-99-which is likely more than all the other species ever known combined.
The study was published in the open-access journal Phytokeys. Co-discoverer Steve Perlman (now with the PEP Program) has done rough terrain field work on all the Hawaiian islands as well as throughout the tropical Pacific
Hawaiians know these trees as hau kuahiwi-hau being a type of lowland Hibiscus common throughout the tropical Pacific
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