#Walden Pond trees leafing out far earlier than in Thoreaus timeclimate-change studies by Boston University biologists show leaf-out times of trees and shrubs
when Caroline Polgar a graduate student with Primack examined Thoreau's unpublished observations of leaf-out times for common trees
if all trees and shrubs in Concord are equally responsive to warming temperatures in the spring Polgar said.
Since leafing-out requirements are thought to be species-specific the group designed a lab experiment to test the responsiveness of 50 tree and shrub species in Concord to warming temperatures in the late winter and early spring.
whereas native shrubs like highbush bluberry and native trees like red maple need to go through a longer winter chilling period before they can leaf out
#Iconic Australasian trees found as fossils in South Americatoday in Australia they call it Kauri in Asia they call it Dammar
But 52 million years ago the giant coniferous evergreen tree known to botanists as Agathis thrived in the Patagonian region of Argentina according to an international team of paleobotanists who have found numerous fossilized remains there.
These spectacular fossils reveal that Agathis is had old and a huge range that no one knew about--from Australia to South america across Antarctica said Peter Wilf professor of geoscience Penn State.
Agathis trees currently grow thousands of miles from Argentina ranging from Sumatra to New zealand. They often prefer mountain rainforests where it is wet
In the past the Agathis resin known as manila copal was exploited for linoleum and varnishes but synthetics replaced most of that use.
The researchers report in the current issue of American Journal of Botany that Agathis was a dominant keystone element of the Patagonian Eocene floras alongside numerous other plant taxa that still associate with it in Australasia and Southeast asia.
There is a fossil record of Agathis in Australia and New zealand where it still lives said Wilf.
However Agathis fossils have never been found anywhere else until now and they have never been as complete as these.
Agathis grew in Patagonia when South america was part of the remainder of the southern supercontinent of Gondwana composed of South america Antarctica and Australia.
Agathis probably existed in all three areas Australia Antarctica and South america at that time said Wilf. Climate change in Antarctica--the cold and ice--killed them there
Subsequently the trees which are wind dispersed moved away from the cooling south and some left northward-moving Australia for Southeast asia where they thrive except for human interference
The various species of Agathis are identified usually by their pollen cones so this is the first time that a fossil Agathis could be compared directly to trees growing today.
and studied the most similar living relative of the fossil Agathis a threatened species there said Wilf.
According to the researchers the Argentinian fossil Agathis clearly belongs to the same natural group as those living today up to almost 10000 miles away in the tropical West Pacific.
Agathis is a very dramatic example of survival via huge range shifts from the far south to the tropics in response to climate change
It is not clear that Agathis can adapt to the severely more rapid human-induced pressures it is experiencing now from deforestation selective logging and climate change.
Results showed that 58 percent of raven nests were located on transmission poles 19 percent were in trees
and they avoided junipers more so than on random sites. The results of these findings pointed to further increases in raven abundance in formerly natural sagebrush steppe following alterations made by people specifically those associated with energy development and an expanding electric grid.
#Temperature most significant driver of worlds tallest treesunderstanding forest biodiversity and how carbon dioxide is stored within trees is an important area of ecological research.
The bigger the tree the more carbon it stores and a study in New Phytologist explores global variance in tree height identifying temperature as the most important factor behind the tallest species. Height gives canopy trees the focus
The new study explores the role of temperature in driving tree height a study which may allow us to forecast how forests adapt to climate change.
The research examined the temperature-driven physiological model of tree height in order to explain the thermal climates in which the tallest individuals of the tallest tree species grow.
The tallest specimens of the world's nine tallest tree species were found to grow in climates with an unusually small seasonal temperature variation
which accounted for only 2. 1%of global land area. In contrast their distance from the equator ranged from 3900 to 5500 km their altitude above sea level from 50 to 1750 m
It is amazing how little we know about the causes of global tree size variation
If trees will get bigger in the future they will store more carbon than they do now
Scientists remeasured three large (4 ha) historical Methods of Cutting (MC) plots in mixed-conifer forest of the central Sierra nevada installed in 1929 to evaluate the effects of different logging methods.
Trees P10 cm were surveyed across the entire plots and understory vegetation (tree seedlings shrubs and herbaceous species) was quantified within quadrats in the old-growth condition in 1929 prior to logging later in 1929 after logging and again in 2007 or 2008.
We also compared forest structure in the MC plots with an adjacent unlogged control area
The contemporary tree density in the MC plots (739 trees ha-1) was 2. 4 times greater than the 1929 pre-logging density (314 trees ha
-1). Trees in the small and intermediate size classes (10â#5 cm dbh) were represented significantly over
and trees in the larger size classes(>90 cm dbh) generally significantly under-represented compared with historical conditions.
The proportion of pine dropped from 37%of tree basal area in 1929 to 21%in 2007/08.
Density of small to intermediate sized trees was similar in the contemporary logged and unlogged control plots suggesting that over the long term ingrowth may have been influenced more by lack of fire than historical logging.
Change to non-tree vegetation was pronounced most for shrub cover which averaged 28.6%in 1929 but only 2. 5%in 2008.
or fewer trees growing within 15 m to the south of the quadrat suggesting that reduced light was the most likely explanation for the decline over time.
They studied the responses of 15 test subjects to the taste of sweet chilli sauce orange juice bitter tea coffee and soup and a water control.
#Researchers target cancer stem cells in malignant brain tumorsresearchers at the Cedars-Sinai Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute and Department of Neurosurgery identified immune system targets on cancer
of the Brain tumor Center and neurosurgical director of the Gamma Knife Program at Cedars-Sinai.
Cedars-Sinai researchers have studied dendritic cell immunotherapy since 1997 with the first patient human clinical trial launched in 1998.
Cedars-Sinai owns equity in the company and certain rights in the vaccine technology and corresponding intellectual property have been licensed exclusively by Cedars-Sinai to Immunocellular Therapeutics.
Two members of the research team and authors of this article have ties to the company.
The above story is provided based on materials by Cedars-Sinai Medical center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
The flowing tree sap covered the specimens and then began the long process of turning into a fossilized semiprecious gem.
At that time much of the plant life was composed of conifers ferns mosses and cycads. During the Cretaceous new lineages of mammals and birds were beginning to appear along with the flowering plants.
#Antarcticas Pine Island Glacier sensitive to climatic variabilitya new study published in Science this month suggests the thinning of Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica is much more susceptible to climatic
Observations by a team of scientists at British Antarctic Survey and other institutions show large fluctuations in the ocean heat in Pine Island Bay.
Pine Island Glacier has thinned continuously during past decades driven by an acceleration in its flow.
In 2009 a higher CDW volume and temperature in Pine Island Bay contributed to an increase in ice shelf melting compared to the last time measurements were taken in 1994.
Yes, dead tree books. You may see a day when the power is out and the Web is unavailable
or riding bike on a sidewalk only to be tripped up by a tree root bursting through the concrete.
As much as you love trees, in that moment you could really use a chainsaw. Turns out, annoying as that is for you, it's not good for the tree either.
That's why one company is working to better incorporate trees into the urban environment,
while improving the health of trees. For cities to really reap the benefits of trees,
the trees need to be able to mature. So  Deeproot designed a system for urban tree roots to grow deeper into the ground instead of spreading out and over infrastructure.
The Globe and Mail lays out the problem with many urban trees: Big, mature trees define established neighbourhoods in cities such as Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver.
But such trees can be scarce in new suburbs, on downtown streets and in neighbourhoods where construction and excavation have left little soil that isn â¢t compacted.
Often, cities plant new trees in a few cubic metres of poor-quality soil, with predictable results.
Å These trees don â¢t grow oe they just sort of stall oe and they might put out a little bit of green every year
or they get sick and die, Â Mr. James says, adding that the average life of a tree in a Canadian city is 13 years.
Using a type of green infrastructure which the company calls  Silva Cells, trees are able to mature
and grow deep, healthy roots in loose soil, while better filtering rainwater. Here's an example of a Silva Cell at Vancouver's Olympic Village:
An urban canopy to nurture a city â¢s growth The Globe and Mail Photo:
Stephen Rees/Flickr
A fitness device that transforms data into high designwe live in a data-driven world--one where,
if you care about your personal fitness, you are most likely tracking it. It wasn't long ago that the use of pedometers,
Sonny Vu, CEO and cofounder of Redwood City, Calif.-based startup Misfit Wearables, couldn't agree more.
Å Oh my God, this is the magical material--bamboo, rattan, water hyacinth --I â¢ve been looking for,
We use rattan, water hyacinth, bamboo and vine. We use recycled polyethylene and recycled aluminum. Last year we came out with this product that was in the works for a couple years
When we started using rattan, it was easy to find. These past two years, it â¢s not anymore.
had scanned my palm at a kiosk, answered a few questions on a touch screen about my insurance
The palm scan--the vein-reading technology--we see that at about a 10 000-to-one failure rate.
Let me shine this laser in your eyeâ Â Tell me about how the palm reader works.
And the thing about a palm reader versus a fingerprint reader is that someone can cut your hand off,
The palm reading won't work, because the veins aren't working anymore. It's a thermal reading of the veins in your hand.
The company says its operations on the Isle of Islay now run 100 percent on methane produced on its seaside grounds.
Transporting the pot ale to a different stretch of coast where a pipe would expel it into the Sound of Islay was pricey.
Earlier this spring, the UK government approved of a 10-megawatt tidal array for the waters off Islay.
Are trees the most important green infrastructure in cities? An urban forest might seem like an oxymoron.
an urban forest refers to the public and privately owned trees within an urban area. They're the trees that line streets,
provide shade in backyards, and they're also the trees that make up parks and wooded areas.
There are an estimated 3. 8 billion urban trees that are valued at about $2. 4 trillion.
Not convinced about the value of urban forests? Here are some of the benefits of trees to cities according to the report.
Air quality: Urban trees in the conterminous United states remove about 784,000 tons of air pollution each year.
Storing carbon: In the U s. urban trees store about 770 million tons of carbon. Energy use:
100 million mature trees around buildings in the U s. leads to an annual energy savings of $2 billion.
Real estate: Landscaping with trees increases property values. Water flow and quality: Trees can lower the expenses
because cities don't have to invest as much in expensive storm water treatment plants. They also help filter water impurities.
And besides the economic and energy saving benefits, urban trees can help to enhance the sense of place in neighborhoods
and communities at a relatively low cost compared to other costly beautification projects. But it's not a cost-free solution.
Most of these funds were spent on addressing problems related to the growth of street tree roots,
The dry Southwest will need to use drought-resistant trees while other regions will have the plan for the threat of fires during dry seasons.
when you take a moment to appreciate urban trees, their benefits are hard to ignore.
There are kiosks that identify us by our palms, check out our library books and even make pizza with customized toppings.
Briggo produces organic coffee (using fresh, hormone-free milk and natural syrups) with a precision and consistency wholly unattainable by humans.
So just when we thought the coffee market was saturated, Briggo is filling a void--one that serves the coffee drinker who wants to use smart technology for a high-end, mobile-friendly coffee experience.
And the fully caffeinated Briggo team is thinking big. We â¢re not talking 10 to 20 kiosks
Yet even then, he expects Briggo to capture only a few percentage points of the coffee market.
Disrupting the coffee routine I visited Briggo early this year, at the end of student break, so the student center was quiet.
Still, customers occasionally wandered over to the kiosk to pick up their pre-ordered coffee drinks.
There are a half dozen traditional places to get coffee within about a five-minute walk of the Briggo kiosk.
First, a gourmet coffee company Mason handed me my chai, made from organic Pacific soy milk and organic Third street chai from Colorado.
Patrick Pierce is Briggo's director of coffee and kiosk operations. A former champion on the barista competition circuit
where coffee-making is an art, Pierce is now responsible for feeding the robot high-quality ingredients,
The Briggo mantra is that it's first and foremost a gourmet coffee company--not a technology or device company.
Inside the robot, every cup of coffee is ground fresh. Brewed coffee takes 15 to 30 seconds per drink,
and espresso takes up to two-and-a-half minutes. I watched the machine heating the milk
The right place for robotic coffee Terry Mahlum, regional director for Delaware North Companies Travel Hospitality Services,
It's the right place for robotic coffee. The kiosk is slated for a central location across from Gate 13 in the American airlines terminal.
whose clients include the top coffee chains, hasn tried â¢t the Briggo drinks, but he was impressed by the price--$1. 40 for a cup of organic coffee.
If the price of specialty coffee is lower the benefit is purely financial, he said.
It will provide a great cup of coffee to the world while saving on employee costs.
Nahmias is no stranger to food robots. He grew up in Mexico city, and his private school had a French fry machine.
but he said there's something special about the human touch with coffee. People like to go in
the coffee kiosk owned by Redbox movie rental parent Coinstar, which serves Seattle's Best Coffee.
And Nahmias thinks Briggo could be successful in regions of the country that have high uses of mobile technology
A new conversation, new coffee culture I stepped outside of the robot vortex and Nater pulled out his ipad,
They can relate to a cup of coffee --and they get excited about it. As for Nater, he's fired up about the robot and the drinks,
There's such a sharing and communal aspect to coffee. This goes beyond what anyone else is doing in terms of allowing people to share an experience.
creating a way for customers to still have their morning coffee and conversation. And just like the neighborhood barista, the robot remembers what they like.
but my coffee, I want exactly the same way, Nater said. And as Briggo gets ready to expand,
whether other coffee drinkers concur. As for the Briggo team, working overtime to revolutionize the way we think about a coffee shop,
that held a tissue with a brown, coffee-like stain. Turns out it was remained all that from a Brazilian freetail bat from a Southwest Airlines flight from Sacramento, a Boeing 737 that departed at dusk.
Software helps land managers see the trees for the forestwhen it comes to asset management, things like forests and woodlands are in a league of their own.
The seeds or saplings planted this year won't be a harvestable or marketable asset for potentially 30 to 40 years.
'Solar trees'shine on Mexico Citymexico CITY--Solar trees have sprouted in Mexico city's historic district.
Three solar-powered lampposts shaped like towering palms are illuminating a pedestrian street downtown, thanks to the technology of a company called Energetika and a city pilot program experimenting with renewable energy sources.
Along Alhã Â ndiga street, the solar trees appear like an outdoor sculpture during the day.
In the evening, they illuminate a tree-lined corridor packed with vendors of low-priced clothes
The trees echo the design of Ross Lovegrove the U k. designer who first put solar trees on the scene in Vienna with an exhibit outside that city's MAK Museum in 2007.
The solar trees are built to last 10 years. Creators Roberto Calderã Â n and Alejandro Chico told Mexico city Reforma newspaper their innovation is not just about aesthetics
The solar trees were manufactured by prisoners in a city jail. Photo: Lauren Villagran
Solar-powered bug killerwhat do you get when you combine two light bulbs, a bucket of water, and a solar panel?
peaches, corn, strawberries, tomatoes, oranges, coffee and other produce. Now they have their eyes on Europe.
Spreading holiday cheer around Parisian gardensparis This year 100 drop of points will be available citywide to residents looking to recycle their Christmas trees.
Thousands of trees end up in the trash every year, but thanks to efforts across all 20 of the arrondissements, these Christmas decorations have increasingly been turned into mulch to be spread around the city 490 parks and gardens.
15,000 trees were recycled in only 65 locations. Last year, the numbers nearly doubled with 29,000 trees turning into useful mulch in 95 spots.
The service keeps trees out of incinerators while minimizing excessive transportation to shuttle trees to disposal facilities.
The drop-off points are essentially a way to minimize the Christmas carbon footprint. Jean-Charles Noudell, manager of green spaces and gardens of the 3rd arrondissement, says that the recycling program helps create mulch for the gardens that will keep soil moist,
which helps cut down on watering costs. It decomposes like any old branch in the soil to recreate
Also Paris is probably the only place in the world where locals can recycle their Christmas trees in a Roman amphitheater
Citizens can leave their trees next to their recycling bins if they can t haul their tree to the closest drop-off point.
Citizens must remove all decorations from trees and flocked trees cannot be turned into mulch. The recycling services are available through January 22.
Photos: Paris. fr
Stalled NYC construction site becomes urban farmwhat to do with thousands of square feet of real estate where construction is on hold?
Plant okra and eggplant, of course. The Riverpark Farm at Alexandria Center was created this summer through a partnership between the Riverpark restaurant and the Alexandria Center for Life science â New york city.
trees and greenery--planned for these projects. Amazon is the latest tech company to join the architectural fray.
such as oak, zebra wood, walnut, maple, mahogany and rosewood. The Portland-based company now sells all over the world, from Thailand to Turkey, to Egypt to Estonia.
%)Meat, poultry, fish (16%)Dry beans, peas, lentils (16%)Tree nuts and peanuts (16%)Related on Smartplanet:
Now we have two dozen fruit trees. We have asparagus, almonds, cherries, heirloom apples, herbs â Â The cool thing is that we plant three times a year now â spring, summer and fall.
because the trees, whose roots have lost their solid support system, lean crazily. Thermokarsts are becoming more common in some regions,
winter for snow-covered trees and ice skating; spring for tulip bulbs and pink and white blossoming trees;
summer for picnicking on Sheep Meadow and concerts on the Great Lawn. 2. Barcelona, Spain Parc GÃ Â ell is a visually stunning combination of park and innovative architectural and sculptural forms,
The 250-acre Kensington Gardens has lined majestic tree promenades and views of Kensington Palace, while St james's Park is ostensibly Buckingham Palace's front yard.
and rows of imposing trees. Jardin des Tuileries, in the 1st arrondissement, is in an equally postcard-perfect location along the Right Bank of the Seine river.
Throughout the year. 8. Melbourne, Australia Visit the Royal Botanic Gardens for its 12,000-plus species of plants, trees and flowers, the romantic Treasury Gardens, the greenhouses of the Fitzroy Gardens
and breathe in the scent of eucalyptus trees. Best Time to Visit: Spring for the sight of dozens of brides in long flowing white dresses;
Spring for cherry blossom trees; fall for the changing autumn leaves. 10. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Highlights include Wissahickon Valley Park with 50 miles of rugged terrain for mountain bikers and hikers, plus trout fishing in Wissahickon creek;
Dollens app explores the structural properties of trees and leaves, such as how they take stress from a disaster like an earthquake
and curbs and instead added a grid of trees. Now, the parking lot is hardly recognizable (see the image above.
these two examples don't seem to add much more than trees. But it is a step in the right direction toward a better parking lot.
and planted with trees in rows like an apple orchard, so that it could sequester carbon and clean contaminated runoff.
When those trees were planted in the 1980s, their landowners didn't anticipate that the construction industry would crash in 2008.
Accordingly, Mccraw believes we're headed for a pine pulpwood shortage. New plantings have declined by 50 percent or more in some areas,
while 34.8 percent of those in schools without it were overweight. 2.)Can coffee stave off Type 2 diabetes?
A new study suggests your morning cup of coffee may be beneficial for thwarting Type 2 diabetes.
 Previous research has createdâ tenuousâ links between coffee and a reduced risk of the disease,
Three components found in coffee are thought to have beneficial effects to this end--caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid and caffeine. 3.)Scientists compete in challenge to create artificial chicken.
What's not easy to find out is how many families have planted a garden and fruit trees, and maybe started a small chicken coop,
The trees that define Hong kong's cityscapepart of the stone walls in Kennedy Town HONG KONG In 2005, the MTR Corporation,
along with the trees that grow on them. So before construction began in 2010, the company had conceded to move the subway exit to another location
so as not to interfere with the so-called stone-wall trees. MTR opted to instead build on the site of an existing public swimming pool.
and their trees are world-class urban living heritage. A combination of colonial history and tropical climate helped create Hong kong s unique stone-wall trees.
In the early 20th century, British city planners constructed the large walls as they carved flat land into sloping hills.
Chinese banyan trees started to sprout in the walls crevices eventually growing into mature trees that tend to loom over one side.
Their roots weave across the stone facades, the trunks and branches extending off the top of the structures.
Residents see the wall trees as valuable both for their historical significance such stone walls were a distinctly British design
and the unusual result of banyan and fig trees growing in such a striking, sprawling way.
Jim devised the tree-protection plan for MTR, which requires a wide buffer zone surrounding the walls where no construction is allowed to take place.
A barrier also prevents wastewater from coming into contact with the trees. There are about 1, 000 such trees left.
Here's another look: Photos: Wikimedia Commons/Forz; Wikimedia Commons/Shizhao
The world's $750 billion problem: food wastea new report from the United Nation's Food and agriculture organization points to a major global food waste problem that's hurting the economy and the planet.
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