In addition to dissecting how the virus evolves at different rates in different host species the study challenges several tenets of conventional wisdom--for example the notion that the virus moves largely unidirectionally from wild birds to domestic birds rather than with spillover
We now have a really clear family tree of theses viruses in all those hosts--including birds humans horses pigs
Just like branches on a real tree you can see that the branches on the evolutionary tree grow at different rates in humans versus horses versus birds.
These mix and match for example H1n1 H7n9 with the greatest diversity seen in birds. Using the new family tree of the flu virus as a map showed
What we're finding is that the avian virus has an extremely shallow history in most genes not much older than the invention of the telephone Worobey explained.
In the 1870s an immense horse flu outbreak swept across North america Worobey said City by city
and town by town horses got sick and perhaps five percent of them died. Half of Boston burned down during the outbreak
because there were no horses to pull the pump wagons. Out here in the West the U s. Cavalry was fighting the Apaches on foot
because all the horses were sick. This happened at a time when horsepower was actual horse power. The horse flu outbreak pulled the rug out from under the economy.
According to Worobey the newly generated evolutionary trees show a global replacement of the genes in the avian flu virus coinciding closely with the horse flu outbreak
which the analyses also reveal to be the closest relative to the avian virus. Interestingly a previous research paper analyzing old newspaper records reported that in the days following the horse flu outbreak there were repeated outbreaks described at the time as influenza killing chickens
and other domestic birds Worobey said. That's another unexpected link in the history and the there is a possibility that the two might be connected given
what we see in our trees. He added that the evolutionary results didn't allow for a definitive determination of
whether the virus jumped from horses to birds or vice versa but a close relationship between the two virus species is clearly there.
With regard to humans the research sheds light on a longstanding mystery. Ever since the influenza pandemic of 1918 it has not been possible to narrow down even to a hemisphere the geographic origins of any of the genes of the pandemic virus. Our study changes that Worobey said.
It is now clear that most of its genome jumped from birds very close to 1918 in the Western hemisphere
The results also challenge the accepted wisdom of wild birds as the major reservoir harboring the flu virus from where it jumps to domestic birds
Instead the genetic diversity across the whole avian virus gene pool in domestic and wild birds often appears to trace back to earlier outbreaks of the virus in domestic birds Worobey explained.
People tend to think of wild birds as the source of everything but we see a very strong indication of spillover from domestic birds to wild birds he said.
It turns out the animals we keep for food and eggs may be substantially shaping the diversity of these viruses in the wild over time spans of decades.
That is a surprise. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Arizona.
and Behavior at the University of Minnesota and the Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies at the University of Zurich the research team included U of M associate professors Eric Seabloom and Elizabeth Borer
when we have more nutrients coming into that system says Borer. This the researchers found was synchronized due to more growth of plants eliminating the portfolio effect.
Borer and Seabloom led a small group of scientists who created Nutnet to standardize the way that ecology research is conducted.
and supervision costs while a more intimate knowledge of the local soil plants and animals enables smallholders to maximize output.
One recent example is the development of seeds treated with insecticides to discourage early damage by crop pests.
After testing scores of samples taken from rice fields across the state MSU scientists found that seed treatments are effective in managing the crop's most troublesome insect pests.
The main reason for that yield increase is rice water weevil control. Gore said seed treatments are effective in both conventional rice varieties and hybrids.
Although they do not provide 100 percent control of rice water weevil seed treatments do provide significant benefits in rice he said.
Insect managementgore works at the Delta Research and Extension Center in Stoneville. He said researchers take core samples about 4 inches in diameter
and count the rice water weevil larvae. An infestation of one larva per core will result in about a 1 percent yield loss Gore said.
Typical infestations in the Delta range from 10 to 25 weevils per core in untreated fields resulting in a 10 to 25 percent yield loss.
Gore said that seed treatments provide other benefits to rice producers too. Seed treatments provide good control against a whole complex of other rice pests he said.
Seed treatments help manage chinch bugs grape colapsis thrips and soil insects such as wire worms and white grubs and get the plants off to a good healthy start.
Performance under flood Seed treatments for row crops such as corn cotton or soybean target early-season pests that are in the soil
when the seed is planted. But rice seed treatments are different. We're targeting primarily rice water weevils
and they only move into the field when producers establish the permanent flood about three to six weeks after planting Gore said.
So seed treatments for rice have to last longer than in other crops because they are sitting in the field a lot longer.
which is about two months that the seed treatment was sitting in the soil without having insect pressure Adams said.
if the lower seeding rate and hence the lower seed treatment rate on a per acre basis impacted insect control.
The management practice that showed significant improvement in rice water weevil control beyond the seed treatment was a foliar overspray with a pyrethroid on hybrid rice Gore said.
You could make it like a kite with power supplied by our fibers. I wish Ben Franklin were here to see that!
The study reports estimated county-level energy and GHG intensity of grain corn stover and cob production in Ontario from 2006-2011.
#Asian longhorned beetles pheromone could be used to manage pestfemale Asian longhorned beetles lure males to their locations by laying down sex-specific pheromone trails on tree surfaces according to an international
The finding could lead to the development of a tool to manage this invasive pest that affects about 25 tree species in the United states. Tens of thousands of hardwood trees mostly maples have been cut down
We discovered a pheromone produced by females of this species that could be used to manage the pest.
and identified four chemicals from the trails of virgin and mated female Asian longhorned beetles--Anoplophora glabripennis--that were not found in the trails of males.
and behavior activities have been evaluated in the laboratory bioassays according to Aijun Zhang research chemist U s. Department of agriculture Agricultural research service Beltsville Agricultural Research center Invasive Insect Biocontrol and Behavior Laboratory.
The synthetic trail pheromone may be useful in managing the invasive beetles in the field. Zhang isolated identified
It is possible that the synthetic version of pheromone could be used in combination with an insect pathogenic fungus that is being studied at Cornell University by Ann Hajek Hoover said.
By also applying the pheromone that female beetles use to attract males we can trick the male beetles into going to the deadly fungicide rather than to a fertile female.
#Why did the orangutan come down from the trees? Orangutans come down from the trees and spend more time on the ground than previously realised
--but this behaviour may be influenced partly by humans a new study has found. Dr Mark Harrison based in the Department of Geography at the University of Leicester
and Managing director of the Orangutan Tropical Peatland Project (Outrop) has along with international colleagues published results of a seven year study of Orangutans in Borneo in the journal Scientific Reports.
and March 2013 is based on a large-scale analysis of Orangutan terrestriality using comprehensive camera-trapping data from 16 sites across Borneo.
In total there were 641 independent Orangutan records taken at 1409 camera trap stations over 159152 trap days.
The Bornean Orangutan Pongo pygmaeus) is the world's largest arboreal (tree-dwelling) mammal. Records of terrestrial behaviour are rare
Marc Ancrenaz from the HUTAN/Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Programme in Malaysia and colleagues conducted the study.
We've known for some time that Orangutans use the ground to travel and search for food
and fragmentation which is slicing up the Orangutan's jungle home. We found that although the degree of forest disturbance and canopy gap size influenced terrestriality Orangutans were recorded on the ground as often in heavily degraded habitats as in primary forests.
All age-sex classes were recorded on the ground but flanged males--those with distinctive cheek pads and throat pouches--travel on the ground more.
This suggests that terrestrial locomotion is a greater part of the Bornean Orangutan's natural behavioural repertoire than previously understood
The capacity of Orangutans to come down from the trees may increase their ability to cope with at least smaller-scale forest fragmentation
The authors report that more than 70%of Orangutans occur in fragmented multiple-use and human-modified forests that have lost many of their original ecological characteristics.
Modified Orangutan behaviour which sees them increasingly spending time on the ground therefore has its pros and cons:
Unlike in Sumatra where tigers are present predation is less of a concern in Borneo
although infants might be at risk from bearded pigs and clouded leopards. In recent history their biggest predator has been man who is actually more likely to pick Orangutans off in the trees:
Orangutans make a lot of noise and so are very obvious in the trees whereas they can move with almost no noise
and so more easily get away on the ground. The scientists report that terrestrial behaviour therefore could also facilitate movement
Ultimately a better understanding of what drives Orangutan terrestriality how this influences their dispersal movement and survival in a human-modified landscapes is important for designing effective management strategies for conservation of this endangered species in Borneo.
However the precise details of how this happens remain largely unexplored says co-corresponding author Eric Martens Ph d. an assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at the U-M Medical school.
Martens is participating in the Host Microbiome Initiative part of the U-M Medical school's Strategic Research Initiative.
Martens worked with researchers from the University of British columbia Canada the Royal Institute of technology Sweden and the York University Structural Biology laboratory to carry out detailed structural and mechanistic studies into the precise functioning of specific enzymes.
The 11 food values they chose to examine included freshness health hormone-free/antibiotic-free animal welfare taste price safety convenience nutrition origin and environmental impact.
and its carbon offset partner The Carbonneutral Company and Zoo Zurich. The carbon credit sales will support the Government of Madagascar's REDD+Project (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation plus conservation) in the Makira Natural Park and mark the first sale
Through carbon credit sales from avoided deforestation the Makira REDD+Project will finance the long-term conservation of one of Madagascar's most pristine remaining rainforest ecosystems harboring rare and threatened plants and animals
and Zoo Zurich and join us in this effort to conserve Madagascar's unique biodiversity through the sale of future carbon credits said Pierre Manganirina Randrianarisoa the Secretary general of the Ministry of Environment and Forests.
and Zoo Zurich and we look forward to future purchases by other forward-thinking organizations. Said Rob Bernard Chief Environmental Strategist at Microsoft:
Makira contains an estimated one percent of the world's biodiversity including 20 lemur species hundreds of species of birds
The ability to milk animals was a revolution in food production as for the first time humans did not have to kill animals to obtain food.
and wild boar and ate large quantities of sea food including seals and shellfish. With the introduction of domestic animals some 6000 years ago they quickly gave up wild foods
and fishing was abandoned largely and people adopted a new diet based around dairying. Dr Cramp continued:
This isolated sanctuary is popular for its rich bird -and wildlife such as the Blue-banded Kingfisher and Whitehanded Gibbons as well for its rare and beautiful flora like Rafflesia's--known to hold some of the largest flowers on earth.
The wildlife sanctuary covers a region of low-lying forested mountains and is located in the middle of a fascinating transition zone that lies between the northern Indochinese and the southern Sundaland biogeographic regions.
and other flora and fauna present in the Ton Pariwat Wildlife Sanctuary. The unique species composition high diversity and relatively intact forest structure underscore the importance of strengthening ongoing and future conservation measures at Ton Pariwat Wildlife Sanctuary as a key element of wider
Ensilage--a method traditionally used by farmers to turn grass into hay for winter animal feed--has potential to stop the seaweed rotting.
#Continued decline of African forest elephants, study showsnew data from the field in Central africa shows that between 2002 and 2013 65 percent of forest elephants were killed.
This new data marks an update to an earlier paper in the online journal PLOS ONE on the status of forest elephants across Central africa published by the same scientists.
and that elephants occupied only a quarter of the forests where they once roamed. The update released at the United for Wildlife symposium today in London was made by adding new data from 2012 and 2013
These new numbers showing the continuing decline of the African forest elephant are the exact reason why there is a sense of urgency at the United for Wildlife trafficking symposium in London this week said Dr. John Robinson WCS Chief
or the African forest elephant will blink out in our lifetime. United for Wildlife which is headed by The Duke of Cambridge is determined to work together to turn back these numbers.
At least a couple of hundred thousand forest elephants were lost between 2002-2013 to the tune of at least sixty a day or one every twenty minutes day and night.
By the time you eat breakfast another elephant has been slaughtered to produce trinkets for the ivory market. The results show that the relatively small nation of Gabon has the majority (almost 60 percent) of the remaining forest elephants.
Historically the enormous Democratic Republic of congo (DRC) would have held the largest number of forest elephants. The current number and distribution of elephants is compared mind-boggling
when to what it should be said WCS's Dr. Samantha Strindberg one of the co-authors.
About 95 percent of the forests of DRC are almost empty of elephants. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Wildlife Conservation Society.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
#Genetic find might lead to cattle that are more resistant to TBSCIENTISTS have identified genetic traits in cattle that might allow farmers to breed livestock with increased resistance to bovine tuberculosis (TB.
The study which compared the genetic code of TB-infected animals with that of disease-free cattle could help to impact on a disease that leads to major economic losses worldwide.
Despite intensive efforts over many decades bovine TB continues to have a serious impact on livestock at home and abroad affecting farm profitability and animal welfare.
whether the animal will get bovine TB or not; various environmental factors as well as differences in the TB bacteria may also affect susceptibility.
If we can choose animals with better genotypes for TB resistance then we can apply this information in new breeding programs alongside other control strategies.
and plastic building materials to construct their nests. The research was published recently in the journal Ecosphere.
and the ecosystem few scientists have observed insects adapting to a plastic-rich environment he said.
We found two solitary bee species using plastic in place of natural nest building materials which suggests innovative use of common urban materials.
Moore analyzed a grey goo that Macivor discovered in the nests of one kind of bee Megachile campanulae
Turns out that M. campanulae was occasionally replacing plant resins with polyurethane-based exterior building sealant such as caulking in its brood cells--created in a nest to rear larva.
The researchers also discovered another kind of bee Megachile rotundata an alfalfa leafcutter was using pieces of polyethylene-based plastic bags to construct its brood cells.
Markings showed that the bees chewed the plastic differently than they did leaves suggesting that the insects had collected not incidentally plastic.
In both cases larvae successfully developed from the plastic-lined nests. In fact the bees emerged parasite-free suggesting plastic nests may physically impede parasites the study said.
The nests containing plastic were among more than 200 artificial nest boxes monitored by Macivor as part of a large-scale investigation of the ecology of urban bees
and wasps a project involving numerous citizen scientists. The nest boxes are located in Toronto and the surrounding region in backyards community gardens
and parks and on green roofs. They are used by a variety of bee species. The novel use of plastics in the nests of bees could reflect the ecologically adaptive traits necessary for survival in an increasingly human-dominated environment Macivor said.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Guelph. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference e
#Recent decades likely wettest in four millennia in Tibetresearchers looked at 3500-yearlong tree ring records from North East Tibet to estimate annual precipitation.
The management regimes were compared from the point of view of six forest species such as the capercaillie hazel grouse flying squirrel
and two woodpecker species. Also habitats for six groups of dead-wood dependent red-listed species groups were examined.
#Crocodilians can climb trees and bask in the tree crownswhen most people envision crocodiles and alligators they think of them waddling on the ground or wading in water--not climbing trees.
However a University of Tennessee Knoxville study has found that the reptiles can climb trees as far as the crowns.
Vladimir Dinets a research assistant professor in the Department of psychology is the first to thoroughly study the tree-climbing
and-basking behavior. The research is published in the journal Herpetology. Dinets and his colleagues observed crocodilian species on three continents--Australia Africa and North america--and examined previous studies and anecdotal observations.
They found that four species climbed trees--usually above water --but how far they ventured upward
The smaller crocodilians were able to climb higher and further than the larger ones. Some species were observed climbing as far as four meters high in a tree and five meters down a branch.
Still the ability to climb vertically is a measure of crocodiles'spectacular agility on land. The crocodilians seen climbing trees whether at night or during the day were skittish of being approached jumping
or falling into the water when an approaching observer was as far as 10 meters away.
The data suggests that at least some crocodilian species are able to climb trees despite lacking any obvious morphological adaptations to do so.
This is especially true for those studying extinct crocodiles or other Archosaurian taxa. Dinets collaborated with Adam Britton from Charles darwin University in Australia and Matthew Shirley from the University of Florida.
Research by Dinets published in 2013 found another surprising crocodilian characteristic--the use of lures such as sticks to hunt prey.
More of his research can be found in his book Dragon Songs. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Tennessee.
Herbicide drift was associated also with the declines of three species of herbivores including pea aphids spotted alfalfa aphids
and potato leaf hoppers and an increase in a pest called clover root curculio Egan said.
The researchers found more crickets which are considered beneficial because they eat weed seeds in the field edge site.
and Environment did not see a drop in the number of pollinators such as bees in the fields.
However the relatively small size of the research fields limited the researchers'ability to measure the effect on pollinators according to Egan.
That may be because pollinators are very mobile and the spatial scale of our experiment may not be big enough to show any effects Egan said.
Amoxicillin is used to treat various types of infections in animals Gehring said. The goats with lead intoxication show signs of kidney and liver damage so we had hypothesized this damage would inhibit the excretion of amoxicillin leading to higher drug concentrations in these animals.
The test involved intravenous and intramuscular administration of amoxicillin. Blood and urine samples were collected over a period of 10 weeks to measure serum protein and amoxicillin concentrations.
Surprisingly the lead-intoxicated goats actually had lower concentrations of amoxicillin compared to the healthy animals.
#Wasps use ancient aggression genes to create social groupsaggression-causing genes appeared early in animal evolution
If these mean genes keep their roles in different animals and in different contexts then perhaps model organisms--such as bees and mice--can provide insights into the biological basis of aggression in all animals including humans the researchers said.
This is one of the first investigations to utilize large datasets consisting of thousands of different genes to ask
whether there are shared genes relating to similar forms of behavior across a very wide range of animals said Amy Toth assistant professor of ecology evolution and organismal biology Iowa State.
Specifically we looked at aggressive behavior in wasps bees fruit flies and mice and found a few genes that are associated consistently with aggression.
This suggests that even after hundreds of millions of years of evolution some genes may retain their ancestral roles in similar forms of behavior like aggression.
The team investigated the expression of aggression genes in the brains and ovaries of paper wasps--Polistes metricus.
Specifically they looked at wasps belonging to different castes including dominant colony-founding queens subordinate colony-founding queens established queens dominant workers and subordinate workers.
The team then compared the wasp results to gene expression data already available in honey bees fruit flies and mice.
We found that in wasps which are primitively social insects aggression genes control the establishment of an individual's dominance over a group said Christina Grozinger professor of entomology and director of the Center for Pollinator Research Penn State.
In contrast in honey bees which are advanced social insects aggression genes control altruistic defensive behavior--for example
when guard bees sting a predator or even a beekeeper and die in the process.
In solitary species like fruit flies and mice the same set of aggression genes controls fighting between males over territory.
and mice--can be used to study aggression in humans because they share some of the same genes that regulate aggression behaviors
We found that the most important influence on expression of genes in the brains of paper wasps was external factors such as the season
Can we create hyper-aggressive wasps? This type of question allows us to go beyond correlation between the gene and the behavior and address causation.
Grozinger added If there are hyper-aggressive wasps what effect does that have on wasp society? Story Source:
The above story is provided based on materials by Penn State. The original article was written by Sara Lajeunesse.
More biodiversity, better harvestbees birds and bats make a huge contribution to the high yields produced by coffee farmers around Mount kilimanjaro â#an example of how biodiversity can pay off.
If there are only few shade trees left the habitat may become unsuitable for the animal species that pollinate the coffee eat pests
Teamwork on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjarosteffan-Dewenter and his doctoral student Alice Classen therefore wanted to understand how bees birds bats and other animals contribute to pollination
and to biological pest control in the coffee fields. The aim was to find out whether and how intensified farming affects these services provided by the ecosystem.
Contribution of animals to coffee cultivationthe results revealed that where birds and bats had access to the plants there was almost a ten percent higher fruit set. â#oewe believe that this is due to the fact that the animals eliminate pests that would
otherwise feed on the coffee plantsâ#says Julia Schmack (Bik-F Frankfurt). Reduced leaf damage is supposed to reduce the number of coffee cherries falling from the tree while ripening.
Bees and other insects should actually be redundant here as the examined coffee variety Coffea arabica is self-pollinating.
if pollinators have access to the coffee blossoms the cherries were about seven percent heavier
and pest control complement each other perfectly; both are important for higher yieldsâ#says Steffan-Dewenter:
bees and other pollinators ensure better quality. â#Same effect with all cultivation systemsto the surprise of the researchers intensified farming seems to have no negative effect:
the impact of the animal provided services on the harvest was equally good in all three cultivation systems even in the unshaded plantations. â#oewe put this down to the mosaic landscape structure on Mount kilimanjaro with its gardens forests
Given that much of the landscape is divided into small parcels pollinators birds and bats still could find a suitable habitat with nesting places and from there spread into the plantations.
however they additionally recorded wild bees hoverflies and butterflies. So if honey bee numbers were to decrease as they might in climatically unfavorable years this could reduce the harvest in the sun plantations.
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