and compared the predicted values for lysine digestibility with results obtained in the animals. Results indicated that the concentration of analyzed lysine in the sample was a good predictor of lysine digestibility (r2=0. 849)
These findings show that wild pollinators not only contribute directly to almond pollination but also indirectly through increasing the pollination service provided by the honey bees.
A second study in the same system published in Global Change Biology found two other mechanisms by which pollinator diversity improved pollination service to almond.
Where wild pollinators were present they often visited the lower parts of the trees filling the gap in pollination service left by the honey bees.
In orchards with a diversity of pollinators pollination service was buffered to an extent by the wild bees.
Wild pollinators can therefore help sustain pollination service under extreme weather conditions when the service by honey bees declines.
and are applied frequently insecticides are employed only in cases of acute insect infestation. Accordingly correspondingly high doses are applied discretely to fields
Although insecticides often show only short half-lives in the environment these highly toxic substances potentially enter water resources where they can be harmful to aquatic insects and other invertebrates.
#Genome of diamondback moth provides new clues for sustainable pest managementan international research consortium led by Fujian Agriculture Forestry University (FAFU)
and BGI has completed the first genome sequence of the diamondback moth (DBM) the most destructive pest of brassica crops.
This work provides wider insights into insect adaptation to host plant and opens new ways for more sustainable pest management.
The latest study was published online January 13 in Nature Genetics. The diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella) preferentially feeds on economically important food crops such as rapeseed cauliflower and cabbage.
It has developed resistance to against more than 50 insecticides including DDT Bt toxins among others making the use of chemicals as a control measurement become ineffective.
The completed genome sequencing of DBM will lay a solid foundation for tracking the evolutionary mechanisms of how an insect evolves to become a successful herbivore that can defense many insecticides. said Professor Minsheng You Vice president of FAFU and leader of the research team.
The work here also provides an invaluable resource for scientists to better understand the reasons why DBM is such a serious pest
and how new strategies can be developed to control insect pests. In this study researchers sequenced the genome of DBM by whole genome shotgun (WGS)
Compared with other sequenced insect species they found that the diamondback moth possesses a relatively larger set of genes
Additionally the genome-based phylogeny demonstrated that DBM was a basal lepidopteran species which is supported well by its modal karyotype.
and glucosinolate sulfatase GSS) genes may be crucial for DBM to become a successful cruciferous herbivore.
Insecticide tolerance or resistance may have contribution to the option of detoxification pathway in insect herbivores.
In this study researchers found DBM has a larger set of insecticide resistance-related genes than silkworm (B. mori) that had little exposure to insecticide over 5000 years of domestication.
They identified in DBM obvious gene duplications of four gene families that participated in xenobiotic detoxification in insects including ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter families the P450 monooxygenases (P450s) glutathione
The clever evolutionary trick has allowed DBM to become such a serious pest and it may play an important role in the development of its ability to detoxify a wide range of chemicals.
and have the first publicly accessible database of diamondback moth genome. I expect we could translate our achievements into real actions for sustainable pest management in the near future.
The complete genome sequence of diamondback moth is publicly available via visit http://www. iae. fafu. edu. cn/DBM.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by BGI Shenzhen. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
#Bugs reveal the richness of species on Earthan international team of researchers has carried out a survey of the biological diversity in a tropical rainforest.
After nearly ten years of work we have determined that Panama's San Lorenzo forest is home to 25000 arthropods.
The primary source of uncertainty in calculating the answer has been the status of arthropods. Arthropod (Phylum arthropoda) is a collective term comprising insects arachnids
and crustaceans commonly referred to in the vernacular as bugs. Although arthropods make up the majority of all living animal species little is known about their true numbers.
Knowing that arthropods comprise approximately 70 per cent of all living species and that the vast majority of them live in tropical rainforests it makes perfect sense that you can carry out a census of all the bugs in the rainforest to find an answer to the overriding question.
This is precisely what the researchers have done. Rainforest holds the keyfrode à degaard and his international team of 102 researchers went directly to the source.
And this led them to the core of the mystery. After 10 years of examining every inch of the San Lorenzo forest in Panama from the forest floor to the top of the forest canopy the researchers have collected
and identified 130000 bugs representing over 6000 different species. A large portion of all species discovered in the forest were found in a rather small area--a fortuitous development for the researchers.
What this means basically is that we can determine the diversity of species within a tropical forest by examining smaller areas
Greater diversity of flora means more speciesyet another interesting result of the study is that the number of arthropods can be determined based on the number of plants living in the forest.
Surprisingly this also applies to non-herbivores. This finding lends support to earlier theories that postulate that the richness of species increases in correlation with the diversity of plant life.
The researchers discovered that for every species of plant found there would be 20 species of arthropod.
Similarly there are 83 arthropods per species of bird and 312 per species of mammal. Now that we know the answer what is the question?
#Bengali forests are fading awaymangrove forests of the Sundarbans are disappearing taking endangered species like the Bengal tiger with them.
The area is is the largest block of continuous mangrove forest in the world being home to almost 500 species of reptile fish bird
and mammals including the endangered Bengal tiger. Sarah Christie ZSL's tiger conservation expert says: The Sundarbans is a critical tiger habitat;
one of only a handful of remaining forests big enough to hold several hundred tigers.
To lose the Sundarbans would be to move a step closer to the extinction of these majestic animals.
Although mangroves are rare they are an important barrier against climate change providing protection to coastal areas from tsunamis and cyclones.
They are also the most carbon rich forests in the tropics with high carbon sequestration potential meaning their degradation
and identify a gene (called NSS) involved in protecting the virus against the immune response of infected animals.
and found they made mice in the laboratory less sick than viruses containing the NSS gene.
This also results in muscular defects such as abnormally flexed legs often seen in stillborn animals
and even sponges to soak up oil. Unfortunately carbon nanotubes are also the prima donna of nanomaterials;
#Research revisiting the safety of GM weevil-resistant peas in mice contradicts previous risk assessment findingsresearchers at the Medical University of Vienna have conducted feeding trials with mice to investigate the allergenicity of genetically modified (GM) weevil-resistant peas.
and Australian National University showed negative reactions in mice to the peas (Prescott et al 2005).
which can be devastated by pea weevil (Bruchus pisorum) infestation. Unlike peas beans are attacked not by pea weevils as they contain a protein called Î-amylase inhibitor (Î AI) that causes the weevils feeding on beans to starve before they cause any damage.
The Meduni Vienna-team investigated immune responses in mice fed several varieties of beans non-transgenic peas
and the transgenic peas expressing the bean or the transgenic versions of the Î-amylase inhibitor.
The mice showed similar levels of immune response no matter which food they consumed. Dr. Michelle Epstein the lead researcher said We observed that the immune response in mice was the same no matter
whether the inhibitor came from beans where it naturally occurs or from peas genetically modified to express the inhibitor and even in non-transgenic peas.
These results demonstrate that Î AI transgenic peas are no more allergenic than beans or non-transgenic peas in mice Dr. Epstein added.
Rodent studies for genetically modified organism (GMO) safety have recently been in the news. Seralini et al. showed untoward effects in rats fed GM corn
and add to the controversy of using rodents to study GMO safety (see EFSA report). The study is important
Dr. Epstein questions the utility of rodents for evaluating biotech crops and points out that the MUV results highlight the importance of a careful case-by-case evaluation of GM CROPS
and 82 dog breeds and already found some interesting results. For example boxer and basenji breeds of dogs trace a large portion of their DNA (nine percent
and 25 percent respectively) back to wolves after domestication meaning that these breeds interbred with wolves again after humans had begun to domesticate dogs.
What I like about this is that it's starting to give us some resolution on relationships that are just much more complicated than you can capture using the standard tree approach Pritchard said.
and the role it may play in attracting pollinators. An iridescent surface appears to change colour as you alter the angle you view it from.
It is found in the animal kingdom in insects inside sea shells and in feathers and is seen also in some plants.
Iridescence in flowers may act as a signal to pollinators such as bumblebees which are crucial to crop production.
Understanding how petals produce iridescence to attract pollinators is a major goal in plant biology. An estimated 35 per cent of global crop production depends on petal-mediated animal pollination
but a decrease in pollinator numbers across the world has started to limit the odds of pollination
and reduce crop production rates. Flowers and the animals that pollinate plants interact at the petal surface.
The surfaces of many petals have produced regular patterns from folds of the waterproof cuticle layer that covers all plant surfaces.
These patterns can interfere with light to produce strong optical effects including iridescent colours and might also influence animal grip.
Pollinators such as bumblebees can detect the iridescent signal produced by petal nanoridges and can learn to use this signal as a cue to identify rewarding flowers.
We used this to demonstrate that mechanical buckling of the outermost waxy cuticle layer can create the ridge patterns observed in nature on petals and leaves.
#Pythons, lionfish and now willow invade Floridas waterwaysforeign invaders such as pythons and lionfish are not the only threats to Florida's natural habitat.
and Astronomy have calculated that it would take 2425907 seagulls rather than the 501 described in Roald Dahl's James
The physics of aircraft was applied later to calculate the number of seagulls it would have taken for the giant peach to be lifted.
and photograph birds control Scalextric cars and build interactive toys that react to the weather.
London Zoo is interested also in collaborating to record animal movements. The academics from the University's School of Computer science have run a series of workshops for schoolteachers aiming to transform the teaching of computing in schools.
The project's results include lignin-tolerant enzymes and enzyme cocktails for processing spruce straw corn cob and wheat bran.
The raw materials studied in the project were spruce straw corn cob and wheat bran used as animal Feed in Finland the proportion of forest biomass
and conifer biomass in particular is significant. Lignocellulosic biomass consists of cellulose hemicellulose and lignin. Agricultural harvest waste contains large amounts of lignocellulosic biomass
#Exocomets may be as common as exoplanetscomets trailing wispy tails across the night sky are a beautiful byproduct of our solar system's formation icy leftovers from 4. 6 billion years ago
and has feathers then it's probably a duck he said. The work was supported by the National aeronautics and space administration.
since about 1930--during the Smokey Bear era--aggressive forest-fire suppression has had a far greater influence on shifts in dominant tree species than minor differences in temperature.
Feeding pregnant cows and suckling calves typically requires pasture or rangeland and represents a substantial maintenance cost.
#Buy local firewood to prevent spread of invasive beetle, forest service saysenjoying the cooler temperatures with a warm toasty fire?
The Kansas Forest Service is asking residents to help save trees by buying their firewood locally all to prevent the further spread of an invasive beetle killing millions of ash trees.
The emerald ash borer is a small green metallic beetle that was detected first in the United states in 2002 in Detroit said Ryan Armbrust a forest health specialist with the Kansas Forest Service.
The invasive beetle is attacking ash trees in the Kansas city area specifically in Wyandotte Johnson and Leavenworth counties.
The beetle invades a tree by landing on the bark and laying an egg. That larva will hatch
and penetrate into the tree feeding on the thin layer between the bark and the heartwood.
The larva feed on the tree's vascular system eventually killing the tree. Trees that have been invaded by the emerald ash borer have a thin canopy Armbrust said.
As that tree loses leaf material it will try to regain some of it by sending out new shoots lower on the tree.
and stress from the emerald ash borer is woodpecker damage because the beetle larva is a food source for the woodpecker.
Unfortunately once these symptoms appear the beetle has already been in the tree for a few years
and has most likely spread to other trees. Armbrust says they believe the beetle first arrived in the United states through packing material.
Now it is spreading through the transportation of firewood and lumber. The adult beetles are poor flyers
and only travel about a mile on an annual basis Armbrust said. Where we really see rapid movement is assisted through human movement like cutting down logs for firewood and taking them 50 miles or 200 miles away.
#New tree of life traces evolution of a mysterious cotinga birdsthey are some of the brightest loudest oddest-looking least-understood birds on the planet.
Some have bulbous crests long fleshy wattles or Elvis-worthy pompadours in addition to electric blue deep purple or screaming orange feathers.
But thanks to a comprehensive new evolutionary tree of life generated for the tropical cotinga family of South america the door is now open to new discoveries about the more than 60 species in this amazingly diverse group of birds.
Our study provides comprehensive insight into how nearly all the cotinga species are related to each other going all the way back to their common ancestor says lead author Jake Berv a Ph d. student in the Fuller Evolutionary Biology lab at the Cornell Lab
Rick Prum a leading expert on cotingas. Understanding how one species is related to another within this group allows scientists to trace the evolution of specific traits and behaviors.
if the evolution of differently-colored males and females in this bird group (sexual dimorphism) is linked directly to a breeding system in
which males have multiple mates (polygyny Darwin first theorized that the increased pressure of sexual selection in polygynous birds spurred the development of color differences between the sexes.
This appears to be true for many species--but not the cotingas. When Berv and Prum examined patterns of evolution for these two traits across their new tree of life it turned out that they didn't perfectly match up.
The statistics they calculated also supported the conclusion that these traits may be coupled evolutionarily de in the cotingas.
Sexual selection appears to have played a role in the evolution of non-plumage gender differences in some cotinga species. In one case the Screaming Piha the males
but the male sings one of the loudest songs on the planet says Yale's Rick Prum.
That means male-female plumage difference alone is not evidence for sexual selection because sexual selection is also driving other traits such as voice and behavior.
'We hope other scientists who are interested in these birds take our phylogeny and do all sorts of great things with it.
Salinity plays role in insect grazingtwenty years ago biologists Kathy Boyer and Joy Zedler then researchers at San diego State university speculated that too many insects feeding on cordgrass in the marshes of San diego bay could endanger the grass
and in turn endanger the bay wildlife that relies on it. Picking up where Boyer and Zedler left off SDSU biologist Jeremy Long is currently further exploring the dimensions of this relationship.
What he's found so far suggests that it's not a simple as saying too many insects spell death for a host plant.
Instead his research suggests a complex interplay between insects plant growth and the overall stress of the marsh environment.
Egrets and herons soar overhead as do airplanes and helicopters. A five-minute drive will put you in downtown San diego
but a five-minute walk toward the bay will put you ankle-deep in tidal sludge filled with snails sponges and sea squirts.
A number of endangered plants and animals call this salt marsh home. One of them is the light-footed clapper rail a cinnamon-and-gray long-legged wading bird that lives only in Southern California and the northern Baja Peninsula.
This bird makes its nest in the marsh's shallow slush forming its home with strands of the California cordgrass Spartina foliosa.
The nests float and bob with the rising and lowering of the tides. Another marsh creature relies on the same cordgrass:
Haliaspis spartinae otherwise known as scale insects. These pinhead-sized insects form white protective armor that allows them to live
and feed for their entire lives on a single blade of cordgrass. Funded by a grant from California Sea Grant Long set out to discover exactly how these scale insects affect the growth of cordgrass.
Concentrating on cordgrassfor his study Long and Laura Porturas then an undergraduate research assistant at SDSU conducted three experiments on the marsh.
First they visited the marsh once a week and used toothbrushes to remove scale insects from cordgrass in a particular cropping.
They let the scale insects go about their usual business on another set of plants. After 20 weeks they compared the normally-infested plants with the brushed-off ones.
We saw major negative effects from the scale insects Long said. Plants with scale insects were weighed shorter less
and died off earlier in the season than did brushed the-off cordgrass. This makes sense Long said as scale insects sap the cordgrass of sugars and nutrients.
But he was curious whether another factor might also be at play: soil salinity. Saltiness is a constantly churning variable in a salt marsh
and plants like cordgrass have to expend energy filtering and excreting the salt. So he performed a second experiment in the lab growing the cordgrass with and without scale insects in either fresh water or seawater.
To his surprise the freshwater cordgrass actually grew taller when it was infested with scale insects than when it wasn't. Long was puzzled initially.
Why did these insects appear to help the cordgrass grow in fresh water but not in salt water?
Then he had an idea. Compensating for consumptionthere's an idea in plant biology called the'compensatory continuum hypothesis
when these plants aren't stressed they can compensate for their grazing by scale insects by growing more Long said.
Back in the salt marsh he raised the salinity of select locations of cordgrass by adding locally sourced salt then repeated his toothbrush experiment in these locations brushing off the insects from some plants but not from others.
He found that once the salinity got high enough it negated the positive effects of removing the scale insects.
whether there's an insect infestation or not; the plant grows the same either way. Salt of the earthputting the results from all three experiments together Long concluded that salinity is a key factor in
whether scale insects positively or negatively affect the growth of cordgrass. Long and Porturas published their findings this week in PLOS ONE.
But when the plant gets too stressed by the salt it doesn't care about the insects anymore.
Which viruses infect the elephant? Which type of bacteria causes severe lung disease in European brown hare?
Very easily says Alex Greenwood from the German Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research.
On the day of discovery Tsangaras only wanted to compare a particular sequence of DNA enclosed in the mitochondria of different southeast Asian rodents.
Analysis of the sequences and comparison with reference data demonstrated that the complete mitochondrial genome of the rodents had been retrieved from the DNA pool.
Then a second sequence attached itself to the tail of the first and the tail of the second then was bitten'by a third one and so on.
Before being processed the sample contained an intact double helix which then existed in fragments of various lengths.
As their next task his team wants to retrieve simple and well characterised DNA VIRUSES such as the elephant herpes virus.
Greenwood's colleagues successfully applied Capflank to samples from koalas kept in museums. Capflank is at its most efficient though with fresh DNA.
Researchers have found within every species a close relationship between cuticle permeability and foliar absorption although this relationship can vary depending on the fertilizer used.
The researchers suspect that a MERS-Cov in camels may have mutated two and half years ago allowing the virus to infect humans.
Societies in North africa and the Middle east have strong cultural connections to camels where there are a lot of activities that expose people to raw camel products--milk urine
#Efficacy of natural bed bug pesticides comparedconcerns over human-insecticide exposure has stimulated the development of alternative bed bug control materials
and marketed for bed bug control. The results are published in an article in the Journal of Economic Entomology.
The nonsynthetic bed bug pesticides--which contain ingredients such as geraniol rosemary oil mint oil cinnamon oil peppermint oil eugenol clove oil lemongrass oil sodium lauryl sulfate
-Bed bug 911--Bed bug Bully--Bed bug Fix--Bed bug Patrol--Ecoexempt IC2--Ecoraider--Eradicator--Essentria--Rest Assured--Green Rest Easy--Stop Bugging Mewhen
the researchers sprayed the 11 nonsynthetic pesticides directly on bed bug nymphs they found that only two--Ecoraider (1%geraniol 1%cedar extract
and 2%sodium lauryl sulfate) and Bed bug Patrol (0. 003%clove oil 1%peppermint oil and 1. 3%sodium lauryl sulfate)--killed more than 90 percent of them.
None of the nonsynthetic insecticides had any noticeable effect against bed bug eggs except for Ecoraider which killed 87 percent of them.
because it is extremely difficult to spray any product directly on bed bugs because of their ability to hide in tiny cracks and crevices.
Under field conditions bed bugs hide in cracks crevices creases and many other places where insecticide application may not be applied directly onto the hidden insects the authors wrote.
Additional studies under field conditions are warranted to determine the field efficacy of Ecoraider and Bed bug Patrol and how they can be incorporated into a bed bug management program.
Curiously some of the active ingredients in Ecoraider and Bed bug Patrol are also found in some of the other tested products that exhibited very low rates of efficacy an indication that the products'inactive ingredients are also important.
Other factors besides the active ingredients must have accounted for the high efficacy of some essential oil-based pesticides the authors wrote.
Adjuvants such as wetting agents spreaders stabilizers defoamers stickers and solvents may produce synergistic effects to essential oils by improving penetration through insect cuticle and translocation of the active ingredients within insect body.
and can hamper the appearance of crop pests thus minimizing the use of pesticides. Neiker-Tecnalia researchers isolated autochthonous bacterial strains belonging to soil samples and plant tissue.
#How beavers have affected ecosystem at Voyageurs National Parkfelling trees building dams and creating ponds--beavers have a unique ability to alter the landscape in ways that are beneficial to other organisms according to South dakota State university professor Carol Johnston of the natural resource management department.
That's why they are known as a keystone species. The ecologist received a two-year National Science Foundation grant for more than $143000 to compile a book based on her previous NSF-funded research on how beavers have affected the ecosystem at Voyageurs national park near
International Falls Minnesota. Beavers influence the environment at a rate far beyond what would be expected given their abundance said Johnston who has been doing beaver research
since the 1980s and authored or co-authored 28 of the 37 articles in the compilation.
Beavers create patchiness because they cut down big trees and make dams that flood the landscape creating wet meadows
However historical and aerial photos from 1927 and 1940 showed solid forests meaning little evidence of beaver activity.
From the 1940s through the 1980s the beaver population in the nearly 218000-acre park increased steadily according to Johnston.
By 1986 13 percent of the landscape was impounded by beavers. We saw lots of ponds where before there were none she said.
In addition to duck and amphibians moose and upland mammals use this habitat extensively. Having beaver on the landscape creates a lot of biodiversity.
Since 1991 the number of beavers has begun to decrease Johnston pointed out. However thanks to National park service officials mapping the active beaver lodges she can now relate the population data to changes in the landscape.
It's unusual to have both those types of data for such a large area she said.
That will allow her to track what happens to the landscape when beaver numbers are reduced.
Both predation and depleted food supply may account for the beavers'decline. Aspen is preferred the food she said noting beavers don't hibernate
and must rely on having a large supply of edible food in their underwater cache to survive the winter.
Beavers forage up to 110 yards from the pond edge creating what Johnston calls a bathtub ring of conifers
when most of the aspen and deciduous trees have been harvested. Venturing beyond that comfort zone makes them susceptible to predators she pointed out.
Beavers are preferred a prey for wolves. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by South dakota State university.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
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