and the activities of birds insect and other animals and therefore must be factored into climate-change model predictions.
but it also has implications for insect survival and for carbon dioxide absorption by forests. Leaf-out phenology affects a wide variety of ecosystem processes
Why cattle, pigs are even-toedduring evolutionary diversification of vertebrate limbs the number of toes in even-toed ungulates such as cattle
Scientists at the University of Basel have identified a gene regulatory switch that was key to evolutionary adaption of limbs in ungulates.
The fossil record shows that the first primitive even-toed ungulates had legs with five toes (digits) just like modern mice and humans.
In cattle the distal skeleton consists of two rudimentary dew claws and two symmetrical and elongated middle digits that form the cloven hoof
To this aim they compared the activity of genes in mouse and cattle embryos which control the development of fingers and toes during embryonic development.
in mouse embryos the so-called Hox gene transcription factors are distributed asymmetrically in the limb buds which is crucial to the correct patterning of the distal skeleton.
and other even-toed ungulates says Developmental Geneticist Prof. Rolf Zeller. Loss of asymmetry preceded the reduction
and loss of digitsthe scientists in the Department of Biomedicine then focused their attention on the Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) signaling pathway as it controls Hox gene expression and the development of five fingers and toes in mice and humans.
They discovered that the gene expression in limb buds of cattle embryos is altered such that the cells giving rise to the distal skeleton fail to express the Hedgehog receptor called Patched1.
The identified genetic alterations affecting this regulatory switch offer unprecedented molecular insights into how the limbs of even-toed ungulates diverged from those of other mammals roughly 55 million years ago explains Rolf Zeller.
and other even-toed ungulates while it remained fully functional in some vertebrates such as mice and humans.
ARID could have wide uses Woli said. â#oearid has potential to predict various responses by a crop that are related water stress â such as grain yield total biomass produced pest
The animals sometimes nicknamed killer slugs are known to do their fair share of damage in fields and gardens.
It is ranked also among the 100 of the worst invasive animal and plant species in Central europe that are thought to have a significant negative impact on biodiversity economy and health.
Therefore the animals were identified using DNA sequence data lead author Prof. Markus Pfenninger who conducts research on Bik-F
#Thieving chimps changing the way African farmers feed their familieslight-fingered chimpanzees are changing the way subsistence farmers make a living in Africa by causing them to grow different crops
'and an increased exposure to disease-carrying insects as a result. Through crop raiding a form of human-wildlife conflict hundreds of thousands of marginalized farmers are losing edible crops to damage from these troublesome animals each year.
Farmers are reducing their cultivation of maize beans and other staples which are prized highly by raiding species
. In addition by guarding their existing crops during the night farmers are exposed increasingly to malaria carried by mosquitos and soil-based worms
Unsurprisingly nonhuman primates are quite fond of the food crops we grow! The chimps are basically imposing a'natural tax'on farmers growing crops near the nutrient-rich soils of the forest said Shane Mcguinness lead author on the research
and Phd student in Geography at Trinity who conducted the interview-based study with the help of the Great apes Trust and local conservation workers.
Although their numbers are small in this forest chimpanzees are protected an internationally species and have the potential to generate substantial amounts of tourism-driven revenue.
Sylvain Nyandwi of the Great apes Trust of Iowa (the organisation currently charged with conserving the forest) said that 19 chimps had been identified
but there were likely to be more elusive thieves out there that had yet to be accounted for.
Actions to reduce the impact of the chimps must be measured carefully to balance the conservation of the important habitat in
Work is now being finalized on a much larger project around the Volcanoes National park in northern Rwanda made famousby the film Gorillas in the Mist where Mcguinness is assessing the impacts of mountain gorilla buffalo and golden monkey on the conservation of this park and the development
and insects and it stores many antioxidants the study said. Grape phenolics serve as anti-inflammatory agents can reduce the risk of certain cancers
The EPA attributes one-fifth of methane emissions to livestock such as cattle sheep and other ruminants.
However not all ruminants are equal when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions. It turns out that the amount of methane produced varies substantially across individual animals of the same ruminant species. To find out why this is
so a team of researchers led by the US Department of energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) deployed high throughput DNA sequencing
and specialized analysis techniques to explore the contents of the rumens of sheep in collaboration with NZ's Agresearch Limited to see what role ruminant microbiomes (the microbes living in the rumen) play in this process.
To learn why the amount of methane that ruminants produce varies the researchers took advantage of a large sheep screening
and breeding program in NZ that aims to breed low methane-emitting ruminants without impacting other traits such as reproduction and wool and meat quality.
Rumen metagenome DNA samples collected on two occasions from the 10 sheep were sequenced at the DOE JGI generating 50 billion bases of data each.
and methanogen abundance across sheep were rather subtle the team reported that the expression levels of genes involved in methane production varied more substantially across sheep suggesting differential gene regulation perhaps controlled by hydrogen concentration in the rumen
Moreover as Attwood notes there needs to be an incentive for farmers to incorporate low methane animals into their flocks that is achieving better performance with the low methane animals
and spread of the disease up until now is linked mainly to areas that have a high concentration of markets catering to a consumer preference for live birds
They have pinpointed areas elsewhere in Asia with similar conditions (places with a high density of live bird markets) that could allow H7n9--which has infected 429 people thus far
but the concentration of bird markets makes them very suitable for infection should the virus be introduced there
Gilbert and his colleges developed a risk map for H7n9 in part to help anticipate where human infections--so far caused mainly by contact with birds
Unlike H5n1 the other virulent form of avian influenza to emerge in recent years H7n9 produces little signs of illness in birds
which aggregate birds from large geographical areas located near or just outside densely populated urban areas. The existence of wetland-related agriculture near the markets such as farms that raise ducks in flooded rice fields appeared to be a contributing factor linked to the initial emergence of the virus
. But overall the scientists did not find a link between the emergence of H7n9 and intensive poultry operations proliferating in China that raise a larger number of birds.
In fact the study notes that H7n9 has thus far been absent from live poultry markets in Northeastern China a region that is home to many of the country's commercial-scale poultry operations.
The study notes that there is evidence that certain factors within live poultry markets such as the amount of time the birds are there the rigor of sanitation measures
and things like how many live bird markets are located in a particular area the more successful we can be at reducing risks associated with intensifying livestock production in developing countries Robinson said.
The authors of the study expect that this strategy is an adaptive way to avoid predators and to access more nutritious food.
and George Schaller of WCS and Panthera. The study reported that wild yak females are found on mountainous slopes averaging 15994 feet
Domestic yaks were bred once with bison in northern Canada in the 1920's in an attempt to make for more cold-hearty animals.
#Tests confirm that beloved hawk succumbed to multiple rat poisonsa red-tailed hawk named Ruby captured the imagination of many Massachusetts residents who watched Ruby
When Ruby died suddenly in April from apparently ingesting rat poison it was a local tragedy as well as a national warning about the serious dangers these chemicals pose to wildlife.
While these poisons are meant to kill rodents they have unintended consequences of harming and killing animals that prey on rodents.
Sadly wildlife is overlooked often in the age-old battle of human versus rodent. Susan Moses a Cambridge resident who had watched Buzz
and Ruby since 2010 and found Ruby lifeless on the ground beneath her nest wanted to turn the loss into something positive.
The fund's initial goal is to raise $10000 for research to monitor the health effects of rodenticides on birds of prey.
and that we hope will protect future generations of raptors from dying needlessly from rodenticide poisoning.
Murray has been studying rodenticide poisoning in birds of prey for years and published research in 2011 that has been cited frequently by the EPA.
The paper showed anticoagulant rodenticide residues in 86 percent of 161 birds that were tested over five years at the Tufts Wildlife Clinic.
The study examined four species of birds (red-tailed hawks barred owls eastern screech owls and great horned owls) and found that of those that tested positive 99 percent had residues of the SGAR brodifacoum.
Second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides are more potent than their first-generation cousins. Rodents and other species need a much smaller amount of the poisons to suffer their effects.
Another danger of SGARS is their ability to accumulate in liver tissue over time. While this factor doesn't necessarily make second-generation poisons more lethal for rodents than first generation products it has devastating consequences for wildlife.
For example a red-tailed hawk that repeatedly feeds on prey containing sublethal amounts of the second-generation poison is at risk for accumulating a lethal amount over time.
In light of high numbers of children accidentally exposed to second-generation rat poisons as well as the risk to wildlife the EPA tightened the safety standards for consumer use of household rat
and mouse poisons in 2011. After a prolonged battle with the EPA the last manufacturer to comply with the safety standards agreed in May to stop producing its second-generation poisons for sale to residential consumers by the end of the year.
Until SGARS are phased out completely consumers may still find a variety of poisons on store shelves.
So it's very important to understand the larger ramifications of the products used in the home because of their potential harm to children pets and wildlife.
and monitor any long-term changes in rodenticide exposure in birds of prey as a result of the new EPA regulations said Murray.
The researchers base their findings on a comprehensive trawl of online English language websites marketing e-cigarettes between two specific periods--May to August 2012 and December 2013 to January 2014.
and a diverse range of birds reptiles amphibians and mammals with some only found in this region making it
and that there are currently 466 e-cigarette brands online offering more than 7700 flavors including candy flavors such as gummy bear
which is analogous to stem cells in animals. EBB1 also plays a role in suppressing genes that prepare trees for dormancy in the fall
#Animal trapping records reveal strong wolf effect across North Americascientists have used coyote and red fox fur trapping records across North america to document how the presence of wolves influences the balance of smaller predators further down the food chain.
From Alaska and Yukon to Nova scotia and Maine the researchers have demonstrated that a wolf effect exists favoring red foxes where wolves are present
and coyotes where wolves are absent. This effect requires that enough wolves be present to suppress coyotes over a wide area.
Fur trapping records from Saskatchewan and Manitoba reveal that where wolves are absent in the southern agricultural regions of each province coyotes outnumber foxes on average by 3-to-1
. However where wolves are abundant in the north the balance swings dramatically in favor of foxes on average by 4-to-1 and at an extreme of 500-to-1 at one site.
In between is a 200-kilometer (124-mile) transition zone where too few wolves are present to tip the balance between coyotes and foxes.
The results of the study by Thomas Newsome and William Ripple in the Oregon State university Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society were published in the Journal of Animal Ecology by The british Ecological Society.
As wolves were extirpated across the southern half of North america coyotes dramatically expanded their range said Newsome a postdoctoral researcher at Oregon State.
They were located historically in the middle and western United states but they dispersed all the way to Alaska in the early 1900s and to New brunswick and Maine by the 1970s.
So essentially coyotes have been dispersing into wolf and red-fox range in the north but also into areas where wolves are absent
but red fox are present in the East Newsome added. Newsome came to the United states on a Fulbright scholarship from Australia where he earned a Ph d. from the University of Sydney and specialized in the study of dingoes--that continent's top predator.
There's a debate among Australians he said about the potential role of dingoes in suppressing introduced pests that have decimated already wildlife there.
Over the last 200 years Australia has had the highest extinction rate in the world Newsome said.
The debate is about whether the dingo can provide positive ecological benefits. Where dingoes have been removed the impacts of introduced red foxes
and feral cats have been quite severe on native fauna. Dingoes are managed as a pest in New south wales the country's most populous state.
To reduce dingo predation in the livestock industry Australia also maintains the world's longest fence which runs for 5500 kilometers (3400 miles) in an attempt to exclude dingoes from almost a quarter of the continent.
In North america the effect of wolves on coyotes and red foxes provides a natural case study that can be instructive for Australians.
Australians can learn a lot from how wolves are managed in North america and Americans can learn from the ecological role of the dingo Newsome said.
As coyotes have expanded in North america they have become a major cause of concern for the livestock industry.
In the United states in 2004 researchers estimated annual losses due to coyote predation on sheep and cattle at $40 million.
To reduce those damages the Wildlife Service of the U s. Department of agriculture has a program to reduce coyote numbers an effort that has drawn criticism from conservation groups.
In reviewing the fur trapping data from two U s . and six Canadian jurisdictions Newsome and Ripple eliminated potential sources of bias such as records from fur farms that raise foxes.
The fur prices of coyotes and red foxes are correlated also strongly and the two species occupy much of the same types of habitat
so they are equally likely to be targeted and caught in hunters'traps. This study gives us a whole other avenue to understand the ecological effects of wolves on landscapes
and animal communities said Ripple. He has studied the influence of carnivores on their prey--such as deer and elk--and on vegetation from aspen trees to willows.
He and his colleagues have shown that the removal of top predators can cause dramatic shifts within ecosystems.
Wolves are naturally recolonizing many areas of the United states following their reintroduction into Yellowstone national park and surrounding areas in 1995.
Scientists are studying wolf interactions with other species and in particular there is interest in determining whether recolonizing wolves will suppress coyote populations
and have cascading effects on red foxes and other species. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Oregon State university.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e
#Whats the role robotics could play in future food production? A team of computer scientists from the University of Lincoln UK is co-organising an international workshop on recent advances in agricultural robotics.
Academics from the Lincoln Centre for Autonomous Systems (L-CAS) will be attending the 13th International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS-13) from 15th to 19th july 2014.
Recent results confirm that robots machines and systems are rapidly achieving intelligence and autonomy mastering more and more capabilities such as mobility and manipulation sensing and perception reasoning and decision making.
The Series of International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS) founded in 1986 is one of the major events summarizing this trend.
As part of this year's conference Lincoln scientists will be running a workshop with the aim of bringing together both academic
and industrial communities to discuss recent advances in robotic applications for agriculture and horticulture. The world's rapidly growing population brings new challenges for global food security.
To meet the future demand for more cheaper and better quality food new and innovative solutions
#Endangered species baby boom at zoothe Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute celebrated several births recently.
of which were endangered species. A short-eared elephant shrew was born May 8 at the Zoo's Small Mammal House.
The short-eared elephant shrew is the smallest of the 17 living species of elephant shrew weighing between less than one-third of an ounce and 1. 5 ounces at birth.
Although the tiny shrew has been active since birth it stayed hidden for the first few days of its life
Keepers are now getting more glimpses of the shrew as it comes out of its den to explore.
These insect-eating mammals'name comes from their noses'resemblance to the trunk of an elephant.
A fishing cat recently named Hunter was born April 15 on Asia Trail. Inhabiting India and Southeast asia fishing cat populations are declining
and the species is considered endangered because of habitat loss and hunting for food and fur. The first pair of twin fishing cats was born at the National Zoo in May 2012.
Only one other facility accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums has bred successfully fishing cats since 2009.
A leaf-tailed gecko hatched June 2. The leaf-tailed gecko is a large nocturnal gecko from Madagascar threatened with extensive habitat loss from cattle grazing logging agriculture and collection for the pet trade.
Three loggerhead shrike chicks hatched in Mid-may at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute In front Royal Va. Loggerhead shrikes also called butcher birds are songbirds that hunt small animals by impaling them on thorns or barbed wire.
Loggerhead shrikes were once common but they have declined rapidly for several decades and there may be as few as 100 wild loggerhead shrikes left In virginia.
They are listed as threatened or endangered in 20 states and have disappeared from New england. The reason for their decline is understood not
but SCBI scientists are studying the birds. Black-footed ferret kit season is in full swing at SCBI. Twenty-four ferrets have been born so far and 10 more ferret mothers may give birth in the next few weeks (two were inseminated artificially.
Black-footed ferrets were thought extinct until 1980 when a colony of ferrets was discovered in Wyoming. Today all black-footed ferrets are descended from 18 ferrets in that colony.
More than 640 black-footed ferrets have been born at SCBI Front Royal to date many of which have gone on to be reintroduced in the American West.
Extinct in the wild a rare scimitar-horned oryx was born May 15. It was the 164th scimitar-horned oryx calf to be born at SCBI.
Scimitar-horned oryx once lived in the arid plains and deserts of northern African countries of Egypt Senegal and Chad.
Reintroduction efforts have begun in Tunisia. A red panda gave birth to two surviving cubs May 27 at SCBI.
This species is vulnerable because of habitat loss. Red pandas live in the cool temperate bamboo forests in parts of China Nepal and northern Myanmar.
There are fewer than 10000 adult red pandas left in the wild. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Smithsonian Institution.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
#How food marketing creates false sense of healthhealth-related buzzwords such as antioxidant gluten-free and whole grain lull consumers into thinking packaged food products labeled with those words are healthier than they actually are according to a new research study conducted by scholars at the University
of Houston (UH. That false sense of health as well as a failure to understand the information presented in nutrition facts panels on packaged food may be contributing to the obesity epidemic in the United states said Temple Northup an assistant professor at the Jack J. Valenti School
of Communication at UH. Saying Cherry 7-Up contains antioxidants is misleading. Food marketers are exploiting consumer desires to be healthy by marketing products as nutritious
when in fact they're not said Northup principal investigator of the study Truth Lies and Packaging:
How Food Marketing Creates a False Sense of Health. The study examined the degree to
Annie's Bunny Fruit Snacks (Organic) Apple sauce (Organic) Chef Boyardee Beefaroni (Whole Grain) Chef Boyardee Lasagna (Whole Grain) Chocolate Cheerios (Heart
Sarcocystis thermostable PCR detection kit developedconsumption of undercooked cyst-laden meat from cattle sheep and goats may cause infection in humans.
Researchers from Universiti Teknologi MARA have invented successfully a PCR kit which provides a suitable and feasible means of screening detection and identification with high sensitivity and specificity of the parasite.
Sarcosytis spp are intracellular protozoan parasites acquired upon consumption of undercooked cyst-laden meat from cattle sheep and goats.
Humans and some primates are defective hosts for Sarcosystis hominis and S. suihominis after ingesting raw meat from cattle and pigs respectively.
Sarcocystis sarcocysts in muscle biopsy specimens can be identified by microscopic examination of histological sections stained with haematoxylin and eosin and other stains such as PAS reaction.
Basic histological examinations by no means can help definitive identification of sarcocystis at spies level and warrants electron microscopy
Currently there are no commercially available PCR detection kits for sarcocystis. This kit can be of invaluable help for large scale quick screening of meat for sarcocystis
. thus its value cannot be overemphasized for not only meat industry but also the ministry concerned with food and meat safety.
The above story is provided based on materials by Universiti Teknologi MARA (Uitm. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
landscapes of the pernicious pest. Their findings could make the maddening itch of the summer season a thing of the past for the untold millions who are allergic to the plant.
After Kasson successfully isolated the fungus in pure culture from infected plants a DNA analysis revealed that the fungus--Colletotrichum fioriniae--is also widely known as an insect pathogen that kills an invasive bug that infests
Goats eat it deer eat it and birds eat the seeds all to no ill effects.
Jelesko and Kasson have filed for a patent disclosure of their current findings and say that this research just scratches the surface of possible avenues for the study of poison ivy.
#More than just food for koalas: Scientists sequence genome of eucalyptus--a global tree for fuel
These hydrocarbons serve as chemical self-defenses against pests as well as providing the familiar aromatic essential oils used in both medicinal cough drops and for industrial processes.
For example this method is used to play a trick on grape phylloxera a notorious pest of commercial grapevines that attacks the roots of the plants.
By grafting pest-sensitive elite grape cultivars onto pest-resistant wild rootstocks infestation is prevented effectively.
Debris from forests that washes into freshwater lakes supplements the diets of microscopic zooplankton and the fish that feed off them--creating larger and stronger fish new research shows.
While plankton raised on algal carbon is more nutritious organic carbon from trees washed into lakes is a hugely important food source for freshwater fish bolstering their diet to ensure good size
which is consumed in turn by zooplankton: tiny translucent creatures that also feed on algae. The fish then feed on the zooplankton.
Until recently algae were believed to be the only source of food for zooplankton but the new research builds on previous work that showed they also feed on bacteria from forest matter drained into lakes.
The researchers worked along the food chains in the mini deltas. Where you have dissolved more forest matter you have more bacteria more bacteria equals more zooplankton;
areas with the most zooplankton had the largest'fattest'fish said Tanentzap. Areas of Daisy Lake closest to the nickel smelt-works remain bare--dirt
and rock instead of the once lush forest. The young fish in these parts of the lake were considerably smaller due to less available food.
This leaves them susceptible to poor health and predators as they won't be as strong so less likely to go on to breed and repopulate.
It's estimated that freshwater fishes make up more than 6%of the world's annual animal protein supplies for humans--and the major and often only source of animal protein for low income families across Bangladesh Indonesia and the Philippines added Tanentzap.
and other wild insects to pollinate crop plants can reduce harvest yields more drastically than a lack of fertilizer
When crops are pollinated adequately on the other hand the plants bear more fruit and their nutrient content changes.
and other research projects on the importance of insects for the pollination of crop plants.
Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
Copyright Semantic-Knowledge, 1994-2011