They did however come across additional evidence that the U s. strains share several genetic features with a bat coronavirus--findings which point to an evolutionary origin from bats and the potential for cross-species transmission.
FMD strikes cloven-hoofed animals presenting as a high fever blistering in the mouth and feet decline in milk production in females and weight loss.
Although most animals recover over the course of months some die of complications from the disease.
and animals can be infected persistently for a period of several years. The SAT 2 serotype of the virus is endemic in Sub-saharan africa
What's more African buffalo are an important maintenance host meaning they maintain a reservoir of the virus that can re-infect domesticated animals after time
and domesticated animals was African buffalo. To Hall these results indicate that genetic tracking of viruses has a lot of potential for making inferences about viral spread and heading off future outbreaks.
#Grazers, pollinators shape plant evolutionit has long been known that the characteristics of many plants with wide ranges can vary geographically depending on differences in climate.
It is known that a prominent floral display increases attractiveness to pollinators but also increases the risk of damage from grazing animals and seed-eating insects.
To investigate how pollinators and grazing animals affect the characteristics of natural plant populations these researchers studied bird's eye primrose populations in alvar grasslands on the Baltic island of Ãand.
Two distinct morphs of primrose occur there: a short morph that produces its flowers close to the ground
and a tall morph that displays its flowers well above the ground. The tall morph is better at attracting pollinators
but on the other hand it is damaged more frequently by grazing animals and seed predators. In field experiments the scientists have shown that grazing pressure
and pollination intensity determine whether the short or the tall primrose morph reproduces more successfully.
#Economic assessment of mountain pine beetle timber salvagea recently published study by U s. Forest Service researchers evaluates potential revenues from harvesting standing timber killed by mountain pine beetle in the western
--which have the largest volume of standing dead timber--would not generate positive net revenues by salvaging beetle-killed timber.
Center were asked to evaluate the circumstances under which salvaging pine beetle-killed timber would be cost-effective.
and Colorado--two states heavily affected by the mountain pine beetle--to evaluate the effects of efforts to encourage
A variety of dependable cover crops are used to subdue weeds build productive soil control pests and diseases and enhance overall sustainability of organic systems.
and tigers can coexist are emerging in rural Nepal where the government has committed to doubling populations of the critically endangered big cat by 2022.
when Nepalese villagers are empowered to make some local land management decisions the resulting landscape changes can benefit both people and tigers.
Few wildlife species face more potential conflicts with humankind than tigers which require large areas for hunting
Tiger populations have plummeted from an estimated 100000 worldwide at the beginning of the 20th century to perhaps as few as 3000 remaining in the wild.
Carter studies the interactions between humans and tigers in Nepal's Chitwan National park and its environs.
In the latest research Carter and his colleagues showed that in areas near the national park border where local people were permitted to harvest some of the natural resources they needed such as timber and grass the amount of tigers'preferred type of habitat increased.
Within the park where local resource harvests are prohibited the amount of highly suitable habitat for tigers declined--perhaps due to illegal harvests.
Chitwan National park was established in 1973 to protect tigers and other keystones of the area's biodiversity but it has had significant costs for people living in the area.
Many animals have their ranges extending outside of protected areas Carter said. They don't know
and management of the buffer zones affected tigers the researchers used camera traps--motion-sensitive cameras mounted along animal trails--that snapped photos of 17 different adult tigers at sites
By superimposing their photographic evidence of tiger movements onto the land cover maps the researchers showed that tigers have a distinct preference for grasslands near water
That's probably because the grasslands and water attract animals for tigers to prey on the grasses conceal them
and the connected patches of habitat accommodate the big cats'need for relatively large home territories. The researchers used satellite photos taken between 1989 and 2009 to track changes in land cover inside
and outside the park and compare it to the habitat that tigers prefer. Throughout that 20-year span the park offered more habitat suitable for tigers than the buffer lands did.
But the amount of good tiger habitat in the park declined between 1999 and 2009.
Meanwhile tiger habitat outside the park took a turn for the better. From 1989 to 1999 tiger habitat suitability outside the park was relatively constant.
But from 1999 to 2009 the suitability of tiger habitat increased in the area between human settlements and the park boundary.
The tiger habitat gains happened after the buffer zone was created and local people gained some control over land uses outside the park the researchers noted.
In Nepal we're finding that there is this middle ground where you can have people using the land
and still not only keep land from degrading but can improve habitat quality said Carter. Policies in Chitwan's buffer zone such as prohibiting livestock from freely grazing in the forests and community-based forest management improved habitat quality.
In July 2013 the Nepalese government announced the nation's tiger population had jumped 63%in four years with an estimated 198 tigers now living in the wild--many of them in
Park managers are doing a tremendous job of conserving tigers and their habitat in the face of relentless pressure from the human population agreed Carter who has worked in the area since 2008.
As Nepal and other countries work to pull tigers back from the brink of extinction the study provides a relatively straightforward way to measure how humans affect endangered animals'habitat across space
The next step is to model how tiger habitat and human livelihood strategies will interact and change in the future under different conservation policy scenarios.
Bhim Gurung of the Nepal Tiger Trust in Chitwan; and Jhamak Karki of Nepal's Department of National parks and Wildlife Conservation.
#Habitat research methods give a new peek at tiger lifefrom a tiger's point of view yesterday's thoughtful conservation plans might be today's reason to branch out.
An international team of researchers has found a useful way to better understand the tiger's take on policy.
Twelve years ago a team led by Jianguo Jack Liu at Michigan State university (MSU) showed that China needed to revisit how it was protecting its pandas.
Now research on tiger habitat in Nepal published this week's Ecosphere journal of the Ecological Society of America again shows that conservation demands not only good policy but monitoring even years down the road.
and requires innovative methods Liu said Now we're learning that Nepal's outstanding efforts to protect tigers are supported best with close monitoring
Carter has spent years studying endangered tigers in Chitwan National park in Nepal's Himalayan lowlands. The park established in 1973 to protect both the tigers
and the area's biodiversity was not without cost to the people who live around the area.
In Ecosphere Carter reports a unique approach to monitoring the condition of the tiger's habitat by combining satellite images
and camera trap data on where the tigers were hanging out. Tigers like grasslands which support high prey numbers
and likely give tigers cover to hunt their prey. Because tigers require large areas they prefer their cover not be broken too up.
Turns out that growing human populations around Nepal are growing and with that increasing unauthorized human use of local natural resources is reducing the quality of tiger habitat inside Chitwan National park. The tigers are finding friendly neighborhoods outside the park--which is important input both for the buffer's policies
and the park's policies. Many animals have their ranges extending outside of protected areas Carter said.
They don't know and they don't care where the border signs are. So areas outside protected areas are important as well.
In Nepal we're finding that there is this middle ground where you can have people using the land
While GPS collars can tell a lot about an individual animal's behavior camera traps give a fuller picture of traffic in an area.
and grasslands it allowed Carter to see where tigers were hanging out and insight into why.
It turns out that over a 20-year span Chitwan National park still is a desirable place for tigers.
But it is the buffer's tiger habitat that has improved gradually while the park's habitat has degraded gradually.
Then he published a paper in Science magazine showing that panda habitat was being destroyed quicker inside the world's most high-profile protected nature reserve than in adjacent areas of China that are protected not enabling the Chinese to realign their policies.
and methods being used all over the world--camera traps and satellite images--to measure how habitat has changed
and the Guiana Shield harbors around 390 billion individual trees including Brazil nut chocolate and aã§ai berry trees.
and aã§ai berry--have been used and cultivated for millennia by human populations in Amazonia. There's a really interesting debate shaping up says Pitman between people who think that hyperdominant trees are common
Dracaena kaweesakii is a relative of the beautiful Canary Island dragon tree Dracaena draco. It is an ecologically important species found only on limestone hills
#The pig, the fish and the jellyfish: Tracing nervous disorders in humanswhat do pigs jellyfish and zebrafish have in common?
It might be hard to discern the connection but the different species are all pieces in a puzzle.
The pig the jellyfish and the zebrafish are being used by scientists at Aarhus University to among other things gain a greater understanding of hereditary forms of diseases affecting the nervous system.
and it is ethically easier to use them than for example apes says senior scientist Knud Larsen from Aarhus University.
This was where the zebra fish entered the equation. The zebrafish and the jellyfish The zebrafish is as a model organism the darling of researchers
because it is transparent and easy to genetically modify. We thus attached the relevant gene SYN1 to a gene from a jellyfish (GFP)
and put it into a zebrafish in order to test the specificity of the gene explains Knud Larsen.
This is because jellyfish contain a gene that enables them to light up. This gene was transferred to the zebrafish alongside SYN1
#and the beesare our favourite garden flowers attractive to hungry visitors such as bees and butterflies to feed on?
Researchers at the Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects (LASI) at the University of Sussex have completed one of the first scientific studies to put the business of recommending pollinator-friendly garden flowers on a firmer scientific footing.
Gardens are more important than ever as a source of food for a wide variety of insects who feed on the nectar
pollinators such as bees and butterflies are in decline globally with one of the main causes being the loss of flowers especially in the countryside.
and other insects by providing attractive flowers in their gardens for insects to feed on. To do this they often rely on#oepollinator-friendly#plant lists.
The study funded by the Body shop Foundation involved repeatedly counting flower-visiting insects over two summers as they foraged on 32 popular summer-flowering garden plant varieties in a specially planted experimental garden on the University s
and his Phd student Mihail Gaburzov was that garden flowers attractive to the human eye vary enormously (approx 100-fold) in their attractiveness to insects meaning that the best plants for bees
and other insects are 100 times better than the worst. So it pays to make an informed choice of plants from the thousands available to gardeners.
Bees (87 per cent) and hoverflies (nine per cent) were the most frequent visitors with butterflies and moths just two per cent and all other insects also two per cent.
The researchers observed clear differences in the mix of bee and insect types attracted by different varieties indicating that careful plant choice can
not only help insects in general but also help a range of insects. Other findings were: Professor Ratnieks says:#
#oeour trial is by no means exhaustive#we looked at a small selection of the thousands of plants you can find in a typical garden centre.
But our study clearly shows that planting pollinator-friendly flowers is a no-cost win-win solution to help the bees.
and as pretty as those that are less attractive to insects.##oegarden plants do not have to be native to help most pollinating insects.
Nectar for example is basically sugar and water and so it is of value to British insects whether it is from a native garden plant or one from another part of the world.
Lavender is from the Mediterranean and dahlias are from Mexico.##oehelping bees in your garden is a no-brainer.
and other insects visiting flowers in bloom to determine the most attractive. Anyone can do this in their own garden or park or even when shopping for plants in a garden centre.#
#1#Quantifying variation among garden plants in attractiveness to bees and other flower-visiting insects Functional Ecology (October 2013.
Back in the US he discovered items used for testing home aquariums that would also work for soil tests.
In fact in some regions the magnitude of carbon uptake or release due to the effects of specific animal species or groups of animals--such as the pine beetles devouring forests in western North america--can rival the impact of fossil fuel
and microbes affect the carbon cycle they often underestimate how much animals can indirectly alter the absorption release
Historically the role of animals has been underplayed largely since animal species are distributed not globally and because the total biomass of animals is vastly lower than the plants that they rely upon
and therefore contribute little carbon in the way of respiration. What these sorts of analyses have not paid attention to is
and government agencies cites numerous cases where animals have triggered profound impacts on the carbon cycle at local and regional levels.
And in East Africa scientists found that a decline in wildebeest populations in the Serengeti-Mara grassland-savanna system decades ago allowed organic matter to accumulate
These are examples where the animals'largest effects are not direct ones Schmitz says. But because of their presence they mitigate
and managers to include animals when thinking of local and regional carbon budgets said Peter Raymond a professor of ecosystem ecology at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.
For example in the Arctic where about 500 gigatons of carbon is stored in permafrost large grazing mammals like caribou
It's almost an argument for rewilding places to make sure that the natural balance of predators
We're not saying that managing animals will offset these carbon emissions. What we're trying to say is the numbers are of a scale where it is worthwhile to start thinking about how animals could be managed to accomplish that.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.
This natural hormone protects the plants against pests. Juvik's team wanted to determine which GSS
#Climate change creates complicated consequences for North americas forestsclimate change affects forests across North america--in some cases permitting insect outbreaks plant diseases wildfires
and other problems--but Dartmouth researchers say warmer temperatures are also making many forests grow faster and some less susceptible to pests
Tree-killing insects and plant diseases are natural elements of healthy forest ecosystems but climate change is rapidly altering the distribution and magnitude of forest pestilence and altering biodiversity and the ecosystem.
For example pine bark beetles have killed recently trees over more area of U s. forests than wildfires including in areas with little previous experience managing aggressive pests.
and generalize the underlying theory to cope with unprecedented changes in pest pressure the authors say.
That has permitted population explosions of tree-killing bark beetles in forests that were shielded previously by winter cold
which may increase resilience to pests. Also pest populations in some regions may decline allowing those forests
and their environmental and economic benefits to expand. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Dartmouth College.
#Illinois river otters exposed to chemicals banned decades agoresearchers report that river otters in Central Illinois are being exposed to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBS)
The Illinois Department of Natural resources collected 23 river otters between 2009 and 2011 after the animals were killed incidentally (hit by cars
or accidentally caught in traps for example). The agency passed the carcasses along to researchers at the Illinois Natural history Survey for analysis and the University of Illinois Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory conducted autopsies.
(and byproduct of the pesticide aldrin) that was used across the Midwest before it was banned in 1987--exceeded those measured in eight river otters collected in Illinois from 1984 to 1989.
And male river otters had significantly higher concentrations of PCBS compared to females. PCBS were used once as insulators
and coolants in motors and electrical systems but were banned in 1979 in the U s. after studies found that exposure to these compounds caused cancer and other deleterious health effects in animals.
and DDE contribute to eggshell thinning in several bird species and are toxic to fish shellfish and other organisms.
In mammals these compounds can cause gene disruption and interfere with hormone function particularly in a developing fetus.
Dieldrin was used extensively to kill crop pests termites and mosquitoes before it was banned in 1987 in the U s. Its use in the Midwest agricultural belt was pronounced particularly.
Before these compounds were banned U s. farmers applied more than 15 million pounds of dieldrin and aldrin (its parent compound) to their crops every year--much of it in the Midwest.
Concentrations of contaminants in river otters ranged widely. One male had a concentration of PCBS in its liver of 3450 parts per billion (ppb)
Since the otters were collected from counties all over Central Illinois the findings could indicate that some watersheds have a worse contamination problem than others Carpenter said.
More research is needed to understand the factors that contribute to the river otters'exposure to these chemicals Mateus-Pinilla said.
The researchers do not know why the male otters in the study carried a heavier burden of PCBS than the females Carpenter said.
because they're eating the same kinds of fish that the otters might be. Studies have shown that PCBS
#Compound derived from vegetables shields rodents from lethal radiation dosesgeorgetown University Medical center researchers say a compound derived from cruciferous vegetable such as cabbage cauliflower and broccoli protected rats and mice from lethal doses of radiation.
For the study the researchers irradiated rats with lethal doses of gamma ray radiation. The animals were treated then with a daily injection of DIM for two weeks starting 10 minutes after the radiation exposure.
The result was stunning says Rosen a professor of oncology biochemistry and cell & molecular biology and radiation medicine.
All of the untreated rats died but well over half of the DIM-treated animals remained alive 30 days after the radiation exposure.
Rosen adds that DIM also provided protection whether the first injection was administered 24 hours before or up to 24 hours after radiation exposure.
We also showed that DIM protects the survival of lethally irradiated mice Rosen says. In addition irradiated mice treated with DIM had less reduction in red blood cells white blood cells
and platelets--side effects often seen in patients undergoing radiation treatment for cancer. Rosen says this study points to two potential uses of the compound.
#Badgers ultimately responsible for around half of TB in cattlebadgers are ultimately responsible for roughly half of tuberculosis (TB) in cattle in areas with high TB prevalence according to new estimates based on data from a previous badger culling trial.
However only around six per cent of infected cattle catch TB from badgers with onward transmission between cattle herds accounting for the remainder the study suggests.
The role of badgers in spreading bovine TB has been debated intensely as part of discussions about whether badgers should be culled to control the disease.
The Randomised Badger Culling Trial which ran from 1998 to 2005 found evidence that culling could reduce TB in herds inside culled areas while increasing TB in areas nearby.
Mathematical models based on data from the trial were used previously to calculate an estimate of the proportion of TB in cattle that could ultimately be attributed to transmission from badgers.
The new paper by scientists at Imperial College London provides a more detailed analysis. It estimates that badgers ultimately account for 52 per cent of cattle TB in areas where prevalence in cattle is high.
There is considerable uncertainty around this estimate but the authors say that 38 per cent is a robust minimum value for the estimate.
These findings confirm that badgers do play a large role in the spread of bovine TB.
The mathematical model suggested that 5. 7 per cent*of transmission to cattle herds is from badgers to cattle with the rest of the contribution from badgers resulting from onward transmission between cattle herds.*
Drought conditions appear to decrease host tree defenses against spruce beetles which attack the inner layers of bark feeding
Spruce beetles like their close relatives mountain pine beetles are attacking large areas of coniferous forests across the West.
Spruce beetles range from Alaska to Arizona and live in forests of Engelmann spruce and subalpine fir trees in Colorado.
and tree defenses like pitching beetles out of tree interiors with resin were likely high.
The area of high-elevation forests affected by spruce beetles is growing in the West Hart said.
In 2012 U s. Forest Service surveys indicated that more area was under attack by spruce beetles than mountain pine beetles in the Southern Rocky mountains
In the short term trees killed by spruce beetles will lead to less water use by trees
But in the long term the absence of the trees killed by beetles may lead to less persistence of snow and earlier runoff.
Although a connection hasn't been made definitively heavy flows of nutrient-rich freshwater into the estuaries are suspected in die offs of eelgrass manatees and pelicans;
Scientists had calculated already it would take an elephant on a pencil to break through a sheet of graphene.*
They would look like butterfly wings Artyukhov said. Bundles might stick to each other but they wouldn't collapse completely Yakobson added.
Ants more closely related to bees than to most waspsants and bees are surprisingly more genetically related to each other than they are to social wasps such as yellow jackets
and paper wasps a team of University of California Davis scientists has discovered. The groundbreaking research is available online
Scientists previously thought that ants and bees were related more distantly with ants being closer to certain parasitoid wasps.
Ants bees and stinging wasps all belong to the aculeate (stinging) Hymenoptera clade--the insect group in which social behavior is developed most extensively said senior author
and ant specialist Phil Ward professor of entomology at UC Davis. Despite great interest in the ecology and behavior of these insects their evolutionary relationships have never been clarified fully.
In particular it has been uncertain how ants--the world's most successful social insects--are related to bees
and wasps Ward said. We were able to resolve this question by employing next-generation sequencing technology and advances in bioinformatics.
This phylogeny or evolutionary tree provides a new framework for understanding the evolution of nesting feeding and social behavior in Hymenoptera.
The collaborators included Ward Assistant professor Joanna Chiu Assistant professor Brian Johnson graduate student Marek Borowiec and postdoctoral researcher Joel Atallah all with the UC Davis Department
and/or behavioral traits evolved in these groups of insects and even examine the genetic basis of these phenotypic changes Chiu said.
and health of honeybees noted that the study showed that ants and bees are related more closely than previously thought.
--and genomic (DNA) data from a number of species of ants bees and wasps including bradynobaenid wasps a cuckoo wasp a spider wasp a scoliid wasp a mud dauber wasp a tiphiid wasp
a paper wasp and a pollen wasp; a velvet ant (wasp; a dracula ant; and a sweat bee Lasioglossum albipes.
Of particular interest was the finding that ants are a sister group to the Apoidea a major group within Hymenoptera that includes bees
and sphecid wasps (a family of wasps that includes digger wasps and mud daubers). The UC Davis results also provide a new perspective on lower Cretaceous fossil Cariridris bipetiolata originally claimed to be the oldest fossil ant.
Scientists later reinterpreted it to be a spheciform wasp. Our discovery that ants and apoids are sister taxa helps to explain difficulty in the placement of Cariridris the authors wrote in the paper
and suggests that it is treated best as a lineage close to the root of the ant-apoid tree perhaps not assignable with certainty to either branch.
The scientists discovered that the ancestral aculeate wasp was likely an ectoparasitoid which attacks and paralyzes a host insect
and leaves its offspring nearby where they can attach to the outside of the host and feed from it.
The research drew financial support from UC Davis. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of California-Davis. Note:
Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
Copyright Semantic-Knowledge, 1994-2011