#Fossil palm beetles hind-cast 50-million-year-old wintersfifty-million-year-old fossil beetles that fed only on palm seeds are giving Simon Fraser University
The key to their study was finding a particular group of beetles that only feed on palms.
The natural distribution of palms is limited today to regions without significant frost days which their seeds
A cooler upland with palms indicates a specific climate type where a temperate average yearly temperature--rather like Vancouver today--had warmer winters where palms can complete their lifecycles.
But since detecting palm fossils is difficult the research duo developed a new technique--they used the beetle fossils to test for the palms'presence.
and you get big changes such as the explosion of mountain pine beetle populations that strongly affect forests
E-liquids are flavored including tobacco menthol coffee candy fruit and alcohol flavorings. Despite many unanswered questions about e-cigarette safety the impact on public health and whether the products are effective at reducing tobacco smoking e-cigarettes have penetrated swiftly the marketplace in the United states and abroad in both awareness and use.
along with data from tree rings and lakes in South america Dr Abram and her colleagues were able to extend the history of the westerly winds back over the last millennium.
#Citrus greening affects roots before leavesalthough citrus greening enters trees through their leaves University of Florida researchers have discovered that the deadly disease attacks roots long before the leaves show signs of damage--a finding that may help
growers better care for trees while scientists work to find a cure. The role of root infection by insect-carried bacterial pathogens has been underestimated greatly said Evan Johnson a research assistant scientist with UF's Institute of food and agricultural sciences.
Citrus greening first enters the tree via a tiny insect the Asian citrus psyllid which sucks on leaf sap
and leaves behind bacteria that spread through the tree. Johnson said the bacteria travel quickly to the roots where they replicate damage the root system and spread to the rest of the host tree's canopy.
The disease starves the tree of nutrients leaving fruits that are green and misshapen unsuitable for sale as fresh fruit or juice.
Most infected trees die within a few years. It was thought originally that the leaves and fruit were affected first
but the team's research found that greening causes a loss of 30 to 50 percent of trees'fibrous roots before symptoms are visible above ground.
This early root loss means that the health of a citrus tree is compromised severely before the grower even knows it is infected Johnson said.
Experts say this research is significant in the fight against greening. Based on the work of Dr. Johnson and his colleagues we now know how important roots are in the development of greening disease said Jackie Burns director of the CREC.
To battle greening UF/IFAS researchers have attempted everything from trying to eradicate the psyllid to breeding trees that show better greening resistance.
While Johnson's research is not a cure it may help more trees survive as scientists continue their search.
while psyllid control is essential growers should make careful decisions on how many resources to devote to any management strategy for greening-infected trees based on their economic means until field trials have been completed.
#Supercharged tropical trees: Borneoâ##s productive trees vitally important for global carbon cyclinga team of scientists has found that the woody growth of forests in North borneo is half as great again as in the most productive forests of northwest Amazonia
an average difference of 3. 2 tons of wood per hectare per year. The new study published today in the Journal of Ecology examined differences in aboveground wood production (one component of the total uptake of carbon by plants)
Trees are taller for a given diameter in Southeast asia compared with South america meaning they gain more biomass per unit of diameter growth
The research team also discovered that trees in North borneo belonging to the Family dipterocarpaceae (or dipterocarps translating literally to winged seeds)
which grow to giant sizes produced wood faster than neighbouring trees of other families or any trees in the Amazonian sites.
Whilst regional variation in wood production rates has been suspected this research carried out by an international collaboration of scientists from the UK Asia South america
and each region has a range of soil conditions meaning the primary difference between them is the different tree species that happen to exist in each region.
Aboveground wood production is the amount of biomass gained in the woody parts of a tree.
It can be estimated from repeated measures of tree diameter and estimates of wood density and tree height.
The study examined data from 26 hectares of forest and 12000 trees which have been monitored for more than twenty years.
Lead author Dr Lindsay Banin from the UK's Centre for Ecology & Hydrology said In Borneo dipterocarps--a family of large trees with winged seeds--produce wood more quickly than their neighbours.
Dipterocarps are known to make special relationships with fungi in the soil so they may be able to tap into scarce nutrient resources.
The fact that dipterocarp-dominated forests achieve faster wood growth than even the most diverse forests in the Amazon shows that the random evolutionary histories of continents can determine their whole ecology.
#Fungus may help stop invasive spread of tree-of-heavena naturally occurring fungus might help curb the spread of an invasive tree species that is threatening forests in most of the United states according to researchers.
Researchers tested the fungus--Verticillium nonalfalfae--by injecting it into tree-of-heaven or Ailanthus plots according to Matthew Kasson who recently received his doctorate in plant pathology and environmental microbiology from Penn State.
The treatment completely eradicated the tree-of-heaven plants in those forests. It appears that this treatment is effective in Pennsylvania
and could be used as a bio-control agent throughout the United states said Kasson. Since tree-of-heaven's introduction into Pennsylvania in the 1780s the tree has spread from a rare
and prized plant for collectors to a nuisance in at least 40 of the 48 contiguous states according to Kasson.
Trying to find the best way to get rid of tree-of-heaven has become a serious land-management issue said Kasson.
Using a hatchet that is designed to pump fungal spores into the trees the researchers tested the fungus on 14 tree-of-heaven stands in south-central Pennsylvania.
Usually it takes three blows of the hatchet to deposit the entire inoculation of about 30 million spores for each tree.
The inoculation kills the entire tree including the sprouts. The researchers report their results in a recent issue of Phytopathology.
because tree-of-heaven has an extensive system of sprouts that spread just above the ground surface
which is one of the reasons the tree is so difficult to manage said Kasson.
The sprouts can immediately grow even if the top canopy of trees dies. Don Davis professor of plant pathology Penn State said that in 2003 he noticed a large number of tree-of-heaven deaths in a southwestern Pennsylvania forest.
The foresters in the area then took him to a site where large-scale wilt was affecting the trees.
There were hundreds if not thousands of dying and dead tree-of-heaven in the area which is very unusual
because tree-of-heaven is very hard to kill said Davis. The researchers noticed a number of Ambrosia beetles near the infected stands leading them to theorize that the fungus often carried through the forests by beetles was involved in the tree deaths.
The Ambrosia beetles may explain some of the long-range spread of the disease said Davis. One theory is that the beetles feed on an infected tree
and then take those spores to another healthy tree which could be miles away. The effect that the fungus has on other plants will be the subject of further research Kasson said.
However preliminary studies on the vegetation that surrounds Ailanthus groves indicate the fungus may not harm nearby plants and trees.
Only a small percentage of plants near the infected tree-of-heaven plots showed signs of being harmed by the fungus.
There are still tests and studies that need to be done in the future to make sure it's completely safe said Kasson.
#Emerald ash borers were in U s. long before first detectionnew research at Michigan State university shows that the uber-destructive emerald ash borer arrived at least 10 years before it was identified first in North america.
and Distributions shows that EABS were feasting on ash trees in southeast Michigan by the early 1990s well before this pest was discovered in 2002 said Deb Mccullough MSU professor of forest entomology.
but ash trees are common in urban landscapes as well as in forests. When they emerged there were likely ash trees nearby providing food for the beetles and their offspring.
Slender cores were collected from the trunk of more than 1000 ash trees across six counties in southeast Michigan.
By studying the tree rings on each core and identifying key marker years the team was able to determine the year each tree was killed by emerald ash borers.
This study which encompassed more than 5800 square miles is by far the largest area sampled with tree rings.
In addition this was the first study to use tree rings to track the spread of an invasive tree-feeding insect.
The scientists found ash trees were killed as early as 1997. Since it takes many years before the beetle population was large enough to kill ash trees the team concluded that the invasive species had been in southeast Michigan since 1992 or 1993 and perhaps even earlier.
Emerald ash borers now have infested at least 22 states and two Canadian provinces and have become the most destructive and costly forest insect to ever invade North america Mccullough said.
Emerald ash borers are killing trees so fast across such a large geographic area that nobody actually knows how many trees are said dead she.
We do know there are tens of millions of dead ash in lower Michigan alone. Data from the tree ring study showed how the infestation grew and spread.
Some of the spread was natural--adult beetles flying from one ash tree to another. However new satellite populations were started by people transporting infested ash trees from nurseries or as logs and firewood.
By 2003 they had expanded beyond the six counties encompassed by the tree ring study. Part of the problem was the difficulty of detecting new infestations said Mccullough.
Ash trees have no symptoms when they are infested first. By the time a tree is declining at least three
or four generations of beetles have emerged and gone off to colonize new ash trees. In addition reports of declining ash trees were not uncommon in Michigan and surrounding states in the 1990s.
Problems ranged from road salt to drought to changing water tables. When shiny green beetles emerged from dying ash trees
however researchers knew it was something out of the ordinary. Specialists at the Smithsonian Institute and London's Museum of Natural history could not identify the beetles.
Eventually an entomologist in Slovakia who intensively studied these and similar beetles was able to identify the specimens.
Still the species had no common name until the MSU entomologists and their colleagues came up with emerald ash borer.
By the time Michigan identified the invader ash trees across southeast Michigan were dead or dying Mccullough said.
We think emerald ash borers probably arrived from China where they attack only very stressed or dying ash trees.
Because of that they are considered not an important pest in China. The Asian ash species have evolved with the beetles so healthy trees there are resistant to them.
In North america emerald ash borers would still prefer to attack stressed trees but it will do fine on healthy trees too.
The latest news is featured at www. emeraldashborer. info which is housed at MSU. The site features current research which is exploring improved methods to detect new populations as well as identifying natural enemies of emerald ash borers imported from China that may become effective biocontrol agents.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Michigan State university. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference e
#As carbon dioxide levels rise, some crop nutrients will fall, researchers findresearchers have some bad news for future farmers and eaters:
As carbon dioxide levels rise this century some grains and legumes will become significantly less nutritious than they are today.
The new findings are reported in the journal Nature. Eight institutions from Australia Israel Japan and the United states contributed to the analysis. The researchers looked at multiple varieties of wheat rice field peas soybeans maize
and sorghum grown in fields with atmospheric carbon dioxide levels like those expected in the middle of this century.
Atmospheric CO2 concentrations are currently approaching 400 parts per million and are expected to rise to 550 ppm by 2050.)
#Arctic study sheds light on tree-ring divergence problem: Changes in light intensity may impact density of tree ringschanges in tree-ring density in the Arctic may be evidence of changes in light intensity during the trees'growth according to a new study by San francisco State university
researcher Alexander Stine. The finding has direct implications for the tree-ring divergence problem a phenomenon that has received considerable media attention
but has been misinterpreted widely said Stine an assistant professor of Earth & climate sciences. Tree rings consist of a low density ring
which forms early in the growing season and a high density ring that forms late in the growing season.
Temperature records inferred from Arctic tree rings do a good job of tracking temperature up until the 1960s
but subsequent Arctic tree-ring densities did not keep pace with increases in temperature a discrepancy that is called the divergence problem.
because if we want to use these tree rings as a proxy for temperatures of the past we need to make sure that we understand what's happening now.
and we may be able to deepen our understanding of both trees and climate. With his colleague Peter Huybers at Harvard university Stine set out to understand why tree-ring density was declining in the Arctic.
One possible explanation the two thought might be changes in light intensity that affected the trees'ability to grow.
Starting in the 1960s the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth's surface has declined. Scientists debate the cause of this global dimming with many scientists attributing it to pollution particles injected into the atmosphere by human activity that deflect incoming sunlight.
The researchers tested whether global dimming might be responsible for the decline in tree-ring density in the Arctic.
and light availability throughout the Arctic allowing them to compare trees that grew in the brightest and darkest areas but in comparable temperature ranges.
The researchers used changes in tree-ring density following volcanic eruptions to confirm the findings. Major volcanic events such as the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines also have spewed tons of light-scattering sulfur dioxide particles into the atmosphere decreasing the amount of sunlight reaching the surface.
Their analysis for seven different tree species suggests variations in light intensity caused by volcanic eruptions
and global dimming both affect tree-ring density and this impact is greatest in the darkest Arctic regions In the brightest areas the divergence problem essentially disappears
and tree-ring density is linked most closely to temperature instead. Stine said the findings could have implications for geoengineering proposals that would pump more aerosol particles into the atmosphere as a way to block sunlight
The tree-ring study suggests that Arctic trees might not grow as much --and thus not soak up as much atmosphere-polluting carbon--under such a plan.
fewer than 100 mangrove finches remain on Isabela Island and only about 1620 medium tree finches exist all on Floreana Island.
Nest flies have been implicated in population declines of Darwin's finches including the two endangered species. Clayton says the pesticide--permethrin--is safe for the birds:
and Clayton say their method might help the endangered mangrove finches with only 60 cotton dispensers needed to cover the less than half a square mile inhabited by the birds on Isabela Island.
if mangrove finches will collect cotton balls from dispensers. There are other species of birds that are hurt by parasites
if finches could be encouraged to pick up treated cotton to fumigate their own nests located in tree cacti and acacia trees.
the medium ground finch (Geospiza fortis) small ground finch (Geospiza fuliginosa) small tree finch (Camarhynchus parvulus) and vegetarian finch (Platyspiza crassirostris.
how to recognize structural defects in trees. This highly important topic is presented rarely in middle
Sanagorski and Fitzpatrick explained that trees in urban areas are more likely to develop structural defects that can be costly dangerous or more maintenance-intensive than trees in natural settings.
People need to understand how trees grow in the urban environment and how to recognize potentially hazardous structural defects yet this is not a topic regularly presented in school curriculum Sanagorski said.
Trees are the foundation for healthy social ecology and have proven to be beneficial for children socially physically and emotionally.
Teaching youth about trees results in educated adults with sensitivities to trees and nature. The researchers explored the feasibility of introducing structural defect recognition as a potential curriculum enhancement for sixth grade students
Although students exposed to both methods of instruction increased their overall ability to recognize structural defects in trees those who received the curriculum via illustrated lecture style had significantly higher scores on the posttest than students exposed to the same material via a hands-on approach.
and most exhibited pride in successfully recognizing structural defects in trees. As a result of the instruction a number of students expressed their desire to be more involved with the care
and selection of trees both at home and around their school the authors said. We observed that many students made cognitive associations with
The number of collected insect species correlated strongly with the number of damage types recorded in canopy leaves of 24 tree
#Tree rings reveal nightmare droughts in Western U s . If you think the 1930s drought that caused The Dust bowl was rough new research looking at tree rings in the Rocky mountains has news for you:
Things can get much worse in the West. In fact the worst drought of this century barely makes the top 10 of a study that extended Utah's climate record back to the year 1429.
With sandpaper and microscopes Brigham Young University professor Matthew Bekker analyzed rings from drought-sensitive tree species. He found several types of scenarios that could make life uncomfortable in
For this study the BYU geographer took sample cores from Douglas fir and pinyon pine trees. The thickness of annual growth rings for these species is especially sensitive to water supply.
and dead trees in the Weber River basin the researchers built a tree-ring chronology that extends back 585 years into Utah's natural history.
The team is currently working on a climate reconstruction based on tree rings that date back more than 1000 years.
and between populations of a single species. Scientists at Hendrix College have determined the location of a set of SSR regions that were originally found in the chloroplast genome of two species of pines.
They compared these regions in over 100 pine species and tested them using over 900 individuals.
Nuclear markers have historically been difficult to work with in pines explains Willyard. Although the nuclear genome is important to fully understand evolutionary relationships in plants nuclear data sets are very difficult to obtain for large numbers of individuals
and are complicated by issues of paralogy and shared ancestral polymorphisms especially in long-lived outcrossing tree species like pines.
Willyard and her undergraduate colleagues tested the utility of these SSRS within groups of ponderosa pine.
The ponderosa pine species complex was used as a test case but the resources that we have presented will make the technique easily adaptable to any group of pine species explains Willyard.
The SSR regions identified in this study provide a jumping-off point for future studies. We are excited particularly about the usefulness of these markers for delimiting species complexes says Willyard.
Under carbon markets designed to stop global warming they could get paid to change the use of their land from growing cows to'growing carbon'--receiving around US$1. 99 per tonne of carbon dioxide the trees remove from the atmosphere.
The authors noted that better land management could double productivity of pasturelands compared to conventional practices thereby reducing the pressure to cut down more trees.
Takahata and Miura's study involved coiling bonsai wire around the stems of tomato seedlings between the cotyledon node and the first leaf node.
#Irrigation, soil management strategies investigated for cold climate sweet cherryprevious research efforts have identified several management strategies to improve establishment of new plantings of sweet cherry trees.
There have been few studies on fruiting cherry trees with respect to novel irrigation strategies such as partial and deficit irrigation
which have been researched intensively worldwide for several other tree fruits said Gerry Neilsen lead author of the study.
an unamended control a 10-cm wood waste mulch treatment and an annual fertigated application of 20 g of phosphorus (as ammonium polyphosphate) per tree at full bloom.
while decreased SSC occurred with delayed harvest maturity in trees receiving phosphorus fertigation at bloom.
#Genetic legacy of rare dwarf trees is widespreadresearchers from Queen Mary University of London have found genetic evidence that one of Britain's native tree species the dwarf birch found in the Scottish Highlands
Genes from dwarf birch were found in birch tree populations across Britain which reflects a much wider distribution occupied by the wee tree
We seem to have found genetic footprints of the retreat of dwarf birch into its current refuges in the Scottish Highlands said Dr Richard Buggs Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary's School of Biological
As dwarf birch moved north some of its genes were picked up by downy birch trees which spread through Britain at the cost of dwarf birch.
Our genetic results fit well with the fact that fossil pollen from dwarf birch has been found in parts of England and Wales.
and fossils could be all that is left of dwarf birch in Britain. The current scarcity of dwarf birch seems to be a combination of the effects of global warming deer grazing and burning plants and trees on moors.
Another risk the study highlights is hybridisation or crossbreeding. Richard Nichols Professor of Evolutionary Genetics at QMUL points out:
We suspect that the influx of pollen from other birch species is actively harmful to the dwarf populations especially
since the larger trees produce much more pollen. The study has good news for conservation groups planting dwarf birch.
By using computer models to predict ecological niches the scientists identified many areas where dwarf birch could potentially grow under current climates.
In Arizona's Santa Rita Mountains forests of oaks and pines rise up from dry desert.
Scientists studying the Amazon basin have revealed unprecedented detail of the size age and species of trees across the region by comparing satellite maps with hundreds of field plots.
The findings will enable researchers to assess more accurately the amount of carbon each tree can store.
which trees are given a cash value according to their carbon content and credits can be traded in exchange for preserving trees.
Existing satellite maps of the area have estimated trees'carbon content based largely on their height
but have not accounted for large regional variations in their shape and density. Researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh and Leeds who led the research say their findings could help quantify the amount of carbon available to trade in areas of forest.
Scientists studied a database of thousands of tree species taken from more than 400 hectare-sized plots across the nine countries of the Amazon basin--Brazil Bolivia Colombia Ecuador French guiana Guyana Peru Suriname
while the southwest is wooded dominated by light trees with faster turnover. Scientists say this highlights the need to recognise that carbon is distributed not uniformly in the forest.
Labels for petrol and Bergamot essential oilpetrol could also be tagged using this method and the technology could be used in the cosmetics industry as well.
In trials the researchers also successfully tagged expensive Bergamot essential oil which is used as a raw material in perfumes.
This is in contrast to the more immediate response seen in the Amazon such as large-scale tree mortality brought about by more episodic drought events.
For example drier conditions may favor deciduous trees at the expense of evergreen trees. Our assessment is a step toward an improved understanding of how African rainforests respond to increasing drought Zhou said.
If we had a tree or even some sort of small fruit bush that was in flower it very likely could have killed the fruit buds said Ward Upham Kansas State university extension agent in horticulture.
To check if your fruit buds survived pick a bud from the tree and cut it open from the base to the top.
Upham suggests pulling 10 to 20 buds off each tree to get a percentage of the amount of fruit damaged.
While the fruit may be lost the trees will survive so there should be plenty of fruit next year.
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